ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When practice opened at UCHealth Training Center on Wednesday, camera lenses and the eyes of reporters zeroed in on Drew Lock as he took his first practice repetitions since suffering a bruised throwing shoulder against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2.
Meanwhile, Brett Rypien went about his work. It’s all he can do.
Lock might be ready. Rypien has to be — well, if there is a game this Sunday.
Usually in this type of situation, the only uncertainty with which a backup quarterback must concern himself is the readiness of the regular starter. The positive COVID-19 tests for Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and cornerback Stephon Gilmore, and the uncertainty created by the outbreak with the Tennessee Titans adds a layer that no other fill-in quarterback has faced before in the NFL.
“I’m going about it like I’m going to play Sunday,” Rypien said. “Obviously, there’s some uncertainty with Drew right now, and he’s going to be practicing today which is great. I’m really happy that he’s able to come back. From my standpoint, I have to prepare like I’m going to play and if the coaches tell me on Thursday or Friday that Drew’s ready to go and he can play, that’s awesome too and I’ll be there to support him and get him ready.”
Of course, any practice work with the first team is more than Rypien had last week, when walk-throughs were all he had to prepare for his first professional start.
“I think it’s just getting full speed reps with these guys and being able to run these plays and feel the timing out of routes, different things like that,” he said. “Being able to be in the huddle for a full week would definitely be helpful. I think that’s the mentality that we have to take and make sure that I’m getting these full speed reps and making sure I’m on the same page with these guys.”
All things considered, it was remarkable that Rypien and the offense operated with as much cohesion as it did in the Broncos’ 37-28 win over the New York Jets last Thursday.
Rypien became the 18th quarterback since at least the AFL-NFL merger to complete at least two-thirds of his attempts and average at least seven yards per attempt in his first two games as a pro, according to pro-football-reference.com. This is something that has become increasingly common; the 15th, 16th and 17th quarterbacks to pull this off were Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew II, Lock and Los Angeles Chargers rookie Justin Herbert.
And specifically in his first start, he became the 34th rookie since the merger to complete at least 60 percent of his attempts, average at least 7.5 yards per attempt and finish with at least two touchdown passes. But he was one of only three quarterbacks to reach those benchmarks while throwing more interceptions than touchdowns.
So when Rypien studied the film of his first start, he focused on what he could do better — even though the positives outweighed the negatives.
“I think there was a lot of good plays on the film. That’s one thing I look at when I go back and watch is if I was processing things well, if I was throwing the ball accurately, and I think there was a lot more good than bad,” Rypien said. “Obviously, with the three interceptions, you never want to see those happen. Particularly when I’m rolling outside the pocket, I just need to throw the ball away, there’s no excuse for that. From that standpoint, I know those are easy things for me to clean up because I’ve never been that type of player throughout my career to make dumb mistakes like that.
“I just have to make sure I’m making quick decisions, getting rid of the ball and then not forcing it when I don’t need to.”
That’s something he thinks he can do if he’s taking the snaps Sunday.
“I did think that getting in that game on Thursday and being able to get those reps definitely helped,” Rypien said. “Just seeing things faster and being able to react quicker, but with everything else, it’s just trying to get better this week and come out on Sunday and try to play my best week yet.”
If the game scheduled for Sunday kicks off on time — and if Lock has not returned to the lineup — Rypien will face a New England defense that has forced more takeaways (44) than any other since the start of the 2019 season.
The expected absence of Gilmore in the wake of his positive test for the novel coronavirus saps the Pats’ takeaway thunder, but Rypien knows that even without perhaps the NFL’s top cornerback, Bill Belichick’s defense is capable of confounding any quarterback.
“He does kind of change things week to week and he’s able to do that really well when those guys buy into what the game plan is every single week,” Rypien said. “From an offensive standpoint, we have to make sure that when we get into the game, we understand what the plan is going to be for that game and how we attack that from our end.”
Rypien knows what to do. The questions now revolve and when and whether he will have the chance to do it. The answer is out of his hands.
