Broncos quarterback debacle puts more pressure on the Saints
The Saints should feel pressure facing a Broncos team without a true quarterback.
Saturday was a weird day in the NFL, but the weirdest storyline that emerged was that none of the Denver Broncos’ four quarterbacks would be able to play on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. The reason for this is because Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID-19 and, since the other three Broncos quarterbacks were around him and not wearing masks, they are deemed ineligible.
While Saints fans were likely licking their chops at playing against a team without a quarterback, this puts more pressure on New Orleans to win. The Broncos defense is good enough to keep this a lower scoring game and even more so with Drew Brees still not playing for the Saints and Taysom Hill taking the snaps instead.
Yes, the Broncos are going to have a practice squad wide receiver, Kendall Hinton, suiting up for them at quarterback but this gives them a chance to run pretty much any play that they want to. Maybe there were some tricky plays they had in their back pocket, but have held onto them. Those would be perfect to run in this situation.
Here's how Denver got wiped out at the QB position in a 72-hour span:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 28, 2020
QB Jeff Driskel tested positive for COVID on Thursday.
Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles did not wear masks, per a source, and were deemed high-risk close contacts today. They now are out Sunday.
Expectations are low for the Broncos, which means the Saints have all of the pressure on them.
The Saints are 8-2 and currently sit as the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Broncos are 4-6 and need a miracle to make the playoffs at this point. Denver has nothing to lose in this game while the Saints have everything to lose.
New Orleans’ defense has played a lot better recently, but can they keep that up against a quarterback-less Broncos team? That’ll be the big question here. Game planning for a team without a quarterback might seem easy, but it also means the Broncos will be doing whatever they can to throw the Saints D off the trail.
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What this game will come down to is can the Saints offense play as well as it did last week? If so, they should be able to blow out the Broncos, but if Hill struggles and the defense lets up, this game could be a lot closer than people are expecting.