Report: Broncos awarded former Rams QB Brandon Allen off waivers

The Broncos have found at least one healthy backup QB to put behind Joe Flacco.

The Denver Broncos were extremely active on the waiver wire on Saturday night/Sunday morning. After waiving 36 players, the Broncos whittled their roster down to 52 players, knowing full well that three of them would be going on injured reserve. 

The first order of business, however, after cutting Kevin Hogan and waiving Brett Rypien, was to add another QB to back up Joe Flacco, especially with Drew Lock being one of the three players on the 52-man roster headed for IR. 

The Broncos put a claim in on a QB and were awarded Brandon Allen on Sunday morning, per Mike Klis. Most fans can remember Allen when the Broncos played the L.A. Rams just a couple short weeks ago. 

Allen diced up the Broncos' backup defense, and made Denver's QBs look paltry. Allen was clearly the most competent signal-caller out on the field, going 12-of-19 for 162 yards with a QB rating of 90.2. He's now a Bronco. 

Allen's a former sixth-round pick of Jacksonville's who played his college ball at Arkansas. His sub-9-inch hands caused him to tumble in the 2016 draft, despite having prolific production in college. 

Never one to shy away from QBs with undersized hands, Rams head coach Sean McVay brought Allen in two years ago as a waiver claim. The young QB has been incubating since then, buried on a stacked depth chart. 

One team's trash is another team's treasure. The upshot of Denver acquiring Brandon Allen is that he has a base familiarity with the Shanahan offense employed by Broncos OC Rich Scangarello. 

Some of the verbiage might be slightly different but Allen should be like a duck to water. Plus, he gets one extra day of preparation to be the backup with the Broncos playing their season opener on Monday night, September 9. 

Allen is an intriguing player with some upside. Untapped potential. But he's never appeared in an NFL regular season game. 

GM John Elway, when asked on Saturday whether he prioritizes a backup with real veteran experience or a backup with some long-term upside, he said he'd like to have both. 

“We want both," Elway said following roster cutdowns. "It would be nice to have both of that. I think that’s important specially going into the first week. Both of those help, but we’ll see what happens.”

Clearly, the Broncos went with the upside over the experience, even though Allen has been in the league since 2016. 

Brett Rypien went unclaimed on waivers. In fact, not one of the 36 players the Broncos waived were claimed by an outside team. 

Rypien is likely bound for the practice squad where he can continue to develop under the guiding hand of Scangarello and QBs Coach T.C. McCartney. Meanwhile, at least for now, the Broncos' backup to Joe Flacco is Brandon Allen, a player with zero NFL starts.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.