Does Brett Rypien have a future with the Broncos?

Since Peyton Manning retired it’s almost a yearly tradition to debate backup quarterbacks. This year we didn’t even have to wait until the bye week. With Drew Lock’s injury and Jeff Driskel’s play, we finally had an opportunity to see Brett Rypien make his NFL debut. There was good, bad, and ugly.

So what do you think of Brett Rypien’s performance? Does he have a future with the Broncos?

Adam Malnati: If the Broncos are a successful football team in the future, Brett Rypien has a potential future as a backup. Three picks against the Jets, even in a win, is not a huge confidence booster. So, gutty performance, but not one that screams future starter.

Jeff Essary: I thought it looked like what you would expect from a undrafted free agent making his first NFL start. He’s quick and decisive with the ball so when the Jets blitzed, it actually played into his hands because he was able to get it out quick and knew where to go.

He struggled in the 2nd half when they backed off a bit and started trapping some of the shorter concepts. 3 INTs looks bad, but both Lock and Siemian threw those same balls early on and had them dropped.

I think he’s got a future as a solid backup, and showed guts to bounce back and lead the game winning drive. I don’t think you’ll get anymore than backup level play from him though.

Joe Rowles: I agree with Jeff. Rypien looked how I hoped he would for the most part. His ability to work through his progressions and throw with anticipation was a huge improvement over Jeff Driskel’s last two weeks. His ball placement looked exceptional on a few plays as well and I’m excited to see if he can keep that going.

As far as my concerns going forward: his arm talent is about what I expected. With a base and good fundamentals I think he can do what you need a quarterback to do in the Pat Shurmur offense. What concerns me is how how badly knocking him off platform cuts into his ability to get the ball downfield. It puts more stress on him to win pre-snap and protect himself in the pocket by delivering the ball quickly.

If you stop and go back over his second half picks both hint at what I mean. On Rypien’s pick six Dalton Risner and Demar Dotson give up pressure. Rypien gets the ball out but can’t step into the throw. It makes for an easy pick. Next time I’d hope he looks to the backside, but it doesn’t bother me that he tried for the deeper shot.

Rypien’s third pick is a more egregious version of the second. Should have taken the backside, but it isn’t as though he had no shot completing the throw he tried.

Joe Mahoney: I think we now have a backup QB who probably won’t lose a game for us if he has to play. I think he could turn into a very valuable backup QB if he can improve upon his first start. He did some things that we haven’t seen a Bronco QB do since PFM (handle pressure really well, hit his hot-read, go through his progressions), but he also did some things that we have seen plenty of Bronco QBs do recently (make stupid throws).

Scotty Payne: He threw 3 interceptions and played an awful Jets team. So my answer is no. Remember Allen vs. The Browns last year? Likely the same thing.

Joe M: His TD to Jeudy reminded of Allen’s TD to Sutton. Poor throw that our WR made a great play to catch.

JoRo: True, but I’d argue both his deep shot to Tim Patrick and the second touchdown were better than any throw we’ve seen from a Broncos’ quarterback since last year’s Texans’ game.

Tim Lynch: What I liked about Rypien over a guy like Allen last year is how he bounced back from those two fourth quarter interceptions. That kind of thing would wreck a young quarterbacks confidence. Instead, he came out and nailed a throw down the field to Tim Patrick for 31-yards to setup a lead changing field goal. I like Rypien’s poise and I think he’ll end up being the teams backup for years to come. If not, he’ll end up being some teams backup. The arm strength will keep him a backup, but you can’t teach the things he can do on the mental side of things.

Ian St. Clair: I’d say the potential is there for him to be a backup quarterback, but I tend to agree with Scotty.

Joe M: He has what Paxton Lynch can only dream of as he plays Madden 21, the ability to read a defense, go through his progressions and find the open receiver even while under pressure.

Tim: I’d say he is more like Trevor Siemian, but with pocket awareness. The Broncos offensive line was a leaky sieve in pass protection through the first three weeks. Well, at least 2.5 games. Once Rypien came in the QB hurries plummeted. It’s either that or Elijah Wilkinson no longer playing in games.