DENVER — When an opportunity doesn’t come around often, you do whatever you can to make the most of it.
And that’s what led Brett Rypien to practice a play he’d never run in a game — and perhaps never would — alone in his hotel room on Saturday night.
The Broncos’ backup quarterback wanted things to be prepared for his moment, for a chance that didn’t come along often.
After he was named the starter for the Broncos’ Week 15 game against the Cardinals late this week, he admitted the opportunities meant a little bit more as they became more fleeting.
“Any time you get an opportunity, it’s a blessing,” Rypien said Friday. “I’ve been here four years now. I played four years in high school, four years in college. I was used to playing every single week. It feels more special, for sure, when you get an opportunity.”
In high school in Spokane and in college at Boise State, Rypien was the guy. He started every game. If he turned in a bad outing, there was another opportunity waiting the next week.
That’s not how things work in the NFL — not for a backup quarterback.
Rypien last started in Week 7 against the Jets, and that was his first starting opportunity since Week 4 of the 2020 season.
And so, as he prepared for a start in a game that guarantees few of them, he didn’t leave things up to chance.
The play in question had been in the works for weeks.
It had been in the game plan, ready for the perfect moment.
As of Friday, Rypien hadn’t mastered it.
The play required Rypien to fake a handoff to his running back, who would follow a fullback and a pair of tight ends toward the right side of the line. After faking the handoff, Rypien was to turn away from the play — facing the opposite end zone — and shield the ball from view.
Then, when the defense fully committed to the fake, Rypien was to toss the ball to a tight end who had leaked out into the back corner of the end zone.
It’s a play that requires delicate timing. Too early, and the fake won’t work. Too late, and the…
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