Broncos will turn to wide receiver Kendall Hinton at quarterback vs. Saints

The Denver Broncos will turn to practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton to play quarterback for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

Saturday hasn’t been the greatest for the NFL on the coronavirus front. Twenty Baltimore Ravens are on the COVID-19 list. Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner and a coach testing positive too. The San Francisco 49ers are forced to find a new home due to Santa Clara County prohibiting sports until Dec. 21 due to the spread of the coronavirus. Then, bad news struck the Denver Broncos.

Quarterback Jeff Driskel tested positive for coronavirus, and fellow signal callers Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were listed as high-risk close contacts, effectively ruling them out for Sunday’s game against the Saints. That left many wondering who would start at quarterback for the Broncos this week. We now have an answer.

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton will get the majority of quarterback snaps for Sunday’s game against the Saints.

Kendall Hinton has QB experience from college

After the news of all Broncos quarterbacks being ruled ineligible to play on Sunday, many saw that running back Royce Freeman was designated as the team’s emergency quarterback. While Freeman attempted one pass in college, Hinton has more experience as a passer.

In his collegiate career at Wake Forest, Hinton was the team’s starting quarterback before transitioning into a wideout. Across those three campaigns, Hinton completed 53 percent of his passes for 1,504 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.

As for Freeman, he had one pass attempt dating back to his freshman season at Oregon in 2014. That pass happened to be a 26-yard touchdown. While Hinton will get the majority of snaps under center, Freeman will get his share of passing opportunities against a stout Saints defense.

With this latest development, this will be the first time a non-quarterback started for an NFL team since 1965, when running back Tom Matte started for the then-Baltimore Colts. Even with this setback due to the seriousness of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Saints-Broncos contest is scheduled to take place as scheduled, as of this writing.