Royce Freeman, Kendall Hinton could be quarterback options for Broncos

The Denver Broncos will not have an actual quarterback available for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints after all were deemed out due to COVID-19 protocol.

Quarterback Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The team’s other three quarterbacks — Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles — were removed from practice on Saturday due to contact tracing rules. Later on Saturday, all their quarterbacks were ruled ineligible for the game. The Broncos’ game against the New Orleans Saints is still set to go on as scheduled.

So what will the Broncos do at quarterback for the game? That is the big question.

The Broncos appear to have two options at quarterback. One would be running back Royce Freeman, who played running back in high school, college and plays it in the NFL. He is an emergency quarterback for the team. Freeman did throw one touchdown pass in college at Oregon.

Another option could be Kendall Hinton, who is on the team as a practice squad wide receiver. Hinton began his college career playing quarterback for three seasons at Wake Forest before switching to wide receiver as a senior. Hinton went 133/251 (53.0 percent) for 1,504 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions at Wake Forest.

The interesting part about the game is there will be running-focused quarterbacks on either side, as the Saints are using Taysom Hill due to Drew Brees’ injury. This is not an ideal situation for the Broncos or the NFL, to say the least.

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