Kevin Hogan to start preseason Game 4 vs. Rams, most starters won't play

I'm not sure that fans should have expected anything different, but the Denver Broncos do not plan to play their starters on Saturday vs. the L.A. Rams.

It'll be Denver's fourth preseason game and on the heels of the injury bug taking a big bite out of the Broncos, head coach Vic Fangio would rather play it safe than sorry.

“I just feel like it’s the best thing to do for our team right now," Fangio said following Thursday's practice.

With Drew Lock nursing a badly sprained throwing thumb, Kevin Hogan will get the start at quarterback, per Fangio. The backup QB position has devolved to Hogan but that doesn't mean the Broncos have to like it.

However, Hogan can change the Broncos' perspective by using these two final preseason games as a showcase of his talent. Suffice to say, he's been the epitome of lackluster through the first three games.

The plan, especially with the momentum he'd built up, was for Lock to be the QB2 behind Joe Flacco, likely freeing up the Broncos to cut bait with Hogan and only carry two signal-callers on the 53-man roster. Now, though, the Broncos are almost forced to carry three QBs, unless the team chooses to put Lock on injured reserve.

The Broncos will only do that as a last resort and only if the team truly believes Lock's going to miss a big chunk of the start of the regular season. I'm hearing five weeks on Lock. In terms of real time, that would put a return somewhere around the Broncos' Week 4 throwdown at home vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But it if Lock's injury will sideline him any longer, the Broncos would best off to just bite the bullet and IR him, so that that third QB roster spot could be used elsewhere at another need position. The only problem with Lock licking his wounds on IR as opposed to not, is that being on IR will come with some restrictions that he wouldn't otherwise have, in terms of team activities, practices, meetings, etc.

That's why the Broncos want to avoid the IR necessity if possible with Lock.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we need to next week," Fangio said on Wednesday with regard to putting Lock on IR or not. "We’ll see where he’s at and get more medical opinions. It could or it could not.”

Meanwhile, Brett Rypien has been stashed as the No. 4 QB.

Likely scenario: Hogan gets the first half, Rypien gets the second half.
— Bob Morris (@BobMorrisSports) August 22, 2019

We haven't seen hide nor hair of Rypien since the Hall of Fame Game, but despite the team's desire to sandbag and hide him from the scrutiny of the other 31 NFL teams, the Broncos have little choice but to play him in these final two games.

It would be less-than-ideal to see Rypien get scalped off waivers, a la Kyle Sloter circa 2017, but it's a risk the Broncos are going to have to take. Look at it like this; there's a better than average chance that Rypien, despite being an undrafted rookie, is a better QB today than Kevin Hogan.

Rypien certainly brings more upside than Hogan, so if push came to shove and Rypien shows himself to be just as capable as his veteran counterpart over these two remaining games, the Broncos could cut Hogan instead and roll the dice for the first quarter of the season with Rypien as Flacco's backup. We'll see how it shakes out.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen.

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