The Broncos learned their lesson.
After the disastrous experience of playing without a quarterback against the New Orleans Saints in Week 12 due to Jeff Driskel’s positive COVID-19 test an close-contact protocols that left their other three quarterbacks ineligible, they knew they weren’t going to be caught short at the most irreplaceable positions on the roster again.
Thus, they had two “designated survivors.” One, practice-squad quarterback Blake Bortles, visits UCHealth Training Center daily, gets his rapid COVID-19 test, grabs a meal and sometimes returns for a workout with the team’s strength-and-conditioning coaches. But Bortles has not been needed.
The other is kicker Taylor Russolino.
And now he’s needed.
Signed after the Broncos were caught short at quarterback — and signed because he can also fill in at punter – he is expected to play Saturday in place of incumbent Brandon McManus, who is currently on the COVID-19 reserve list because a close contact tested positive.
If the game against the Buffalo Bills had been Sunday, he would have played, but the league’s decision to move in into the Saturday-afternoon window for national television means that No. 8 will likely have to watch from home.
“I know there’s still some question with him and the league with when his counting of days should have started,” Fangio said. “I don’t know where that stands, but unless they change, he won’t play. If it would have been a Sunday game, he would have played.”
Russolino will be 31 years, six months and 26 days of age when instep meets leather for the opening kickoff of the Broncos’ game against the Bills on Saturday. So, if he plays, he would become the oldest Bronco to make a regular-season debut in franchise history, according to pro-football-reference.com.
He would become the oldest kicker to make his NFL debut since Ola Kimrin in 2004. At 32 years, seven months and 17 days of age, Kimrin made his regular season debut for Washington against the Chicago Bears. He kicked in four more games for the team that season. But Kimrin is probably best known for blasting a 65-yard field goal for the Broncos in their 2002 preseason finale against the Seattle Seahawks.
Russolino was 24 years old when he got his first crack at the pros, kicking for the New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena Football League. That stint lasted three games. He was 26 when he kicked for the Shanghai Skywalkers of the China Arena Football League, 27 when he saw action with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes, and 29 when he had a preseason crack at making the roster of the CFL’s British Columbia Lions last year.
But his big break came with the St. Louis BattleHawks of the revived XFL earlier this year.
Russolino was not the favorite to kick for the BattleHawks; Elliott Fry was. But the Carolina Panthers signed him to potentially compete for a spot, giving Russolino an opening. He stormed through by seizing the job in training camp, then going 9-of-10 on field-goal attempts — including a 58-yarder in the BattleHawks’ fifth and final game before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the season — and eventually, the league.
ESPN was one of the networks broadcasting the league’s games. Pat McAfee, the erstwhile Colts punter-turned-multimedia-personality, worked XFL games as a sideline reporter. McAfee played for Broncos special-teams coach Tom McMahon with the Colts, and the two still keep in touch.
After McAfee saw Russolino kick for the BattleHawks, he told his old coach what he’d witnessed — or, more accurately, what he HEARD.
The sound.
Specifically, the “pop.”
“I was with [McAfee] for six years and he knows what I’m looking for in a kicker and the traits I’m looking for,” McMahon said. “I can’t give those [traits] out right now because it tells the opponent what this player has.
“We don’t talk a lot, but when he finds somebody and hears that pop that we’re all looking for, he shot me a call and it’s much appreciated.”
McMahon said after the Broncos decided to have a “designated survivor” specialist, he reached out to McAfee again, recalling their earlier conversation about Russolino.
“He fit some traits, and when this thing came up and when we wanted to bring in a COVID kicker in case we needed him, he was the first name I gave to [Broncos personnel executives] Matt [Russell] and A.J. [Durso].”
McMahon said he would be confident using Russolino on long-distance kicks. Certainly, the 58-yarder is a big reason why.
.@tgrussolino is expected to fill in for Brandon McManus on Saturday. He had a terrific season for @XFLBattleHawks, going 9-of-10 on FGs, including this 58-yarder. “If he kicks as well as he did in practice, we’ll be fine on Saturday,” Vic Fangio said.
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) December 17, 2020
Now, the Broncos can only hope this works out as well as it did 10 years ago. That was when incumbent kicker Matt Prater missed the final four games due to a groin injury. Denver signed Stephen Hauschka to fill in for Prater, and he made all 10 of his extra-point attempt and 6 of 7 field-goal tries. A year later, Hauschka found a home with the Seattle Seahawks, which began nine seasons of continuous NFL employment with Seattle and the Buffalo Bills.
After a cameo with the Jacksonville Jaguars this season, Hauschka’s career ended this month; he announced his retirement via an Instagram post Dec. 4.
McManus’ contract means that Russolino’s work Saturday would likely be an audition for the rest of the NFL. But if he makes the most of it, it can be the springboard to something big.
And no matter what, his presence proves that it’s never too late to get a first chance.
