Saying the Broncos' Week 12 quarterback situation was less than ideal is like saying a hole in the head is a minor inconvenience.
Denver lost its entire QB group ahead of Sunday's game against New Orleans after Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID-19 and Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were deemed as "high-risk close contacts" because they reportedly interacted with Driskel while not wearing masks. The Broncos were forced to start practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton at quarterback, and it went about as well as you would expect. Hinton completed only one of his nine passes for 13 yards and was picked off twice in a 31-3 loss.
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Broncos coach Vic Fangio was understandably upset with his quarterbacks for putting the team in a terrible position. Hinton began his college career as a QB at Wake Forest — his last touchdown pass came on Oct. 7, 2017, against Clemson — but he had never played in an NFL game and was given zero time to properly prepare for the challenge in front of him. Hinton and the Broncos were staring at an insurmountable competitive disadvantage.
Or, if you ask Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, it wasn't that bad. In Jones' mind, putting Hinton under center was roughly equivalent to working with rookie Ben DiNucci.
Jerry Jones compared the Cowboys seventh round pick QB to a practice squad receiver. He said Broncos weren't anymore challenged with Kendall Hinton at QB Sunday than the Cowboys were with Ben DiNucci. Wow @1053thefan
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) December 1, 2020
With Dak Prescott and Andy Dalton both sidelined, DiNucci started Dallas' Week 7 game against Philadelphia, going 21 of 40 for 180 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions in a 23-9 defeat. That predicament was a little different because DiNucci had taken most of the first-team snaps in practice leading up to the game and, you know, he's a quarterback. (Also an unnecessarily harsh shot at a player the Cowboys chose to select in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft.)
While it's easy to pile on Jones for such a ridiculous statement, it's worth noting that comment overshadowed his larger point about the struggles of operating a professional sports team safely amid a pandemic and the importance of following established protocols.
Here's more context from Jones' interview with 105.3 The Fan:
"In the NFL, you take risks. You take risks when you make your quarterback mobile and risk getting him hit, risk his availability. We've got to look at that for the future relative to Dak and just how much do we want him to get hit in the future. So you take risks. You take risks when you put all the quarterbacks in the same room. If you were worried about those things, you can spread them out a little bit. You can save one. I don't know that Denver had any more of a challenge than we we've had with DiNucci or the young quarterbacks that we've had. And so, my point to you is — and, by the way, two or three of those quarterbacks will be back from COVID — but boy, we have been schooled in the NFL. These teams have been schooled that you had really better pay attention to your protocols. You better manage. Don't just give it lip service, roll your eyes back and say, 'That happens to them. It doesn't happen to me.' Because when we line up to play a game it's just gonna be like — we had our center, two games ago, we had him pull a damn muscle right as he's coming out of the tunnel, and you lost him. And I don't mean to be trite about it, but that happens. That's football, and you better be ready to have somebody else come in there."
Yes, Jones comparing Hinton to DiNucci is silly. We're not even talking about the same ballpark here. Any NFL team would gladly push out an actual quarterback who had a chance to look over a game plan.
However, Jones isn't wrong about players needing to keep protocols in mind at all times. Break the rules and your team may be stuck with nothing but bad options.
Hey, if anyone needs an emergency QB, why not call the Cowboys about DiNucci? They don't seem to think much of him!
