Sunday’s Broncos/Saints matchup was one of the strangest football games the NFL has ever held.
Undrafted rookie wide receiver Kendall Hinton was called up from the Broncos practice squad after their entire lineup of quarterbacks were declared ineligible for play by the NFL due to COVID-19 restrictions. Even though he never practiced as a quarterback for the team, he was named the starter for the Broncos. Fortunately, he did play quarterback at Wake Forest. He quickly learned that the Saints defense was a bit tougher to pass against than the North Carolina Tarheels defense.
Blake Bortles, Brett Rypien, and Drew Lock broke protocol by interacting with a COVID-positive Jeff Driskel and the league felt they were too high-risk to join the team for Sunday’s match.
Denver’s quarterback situation was so unusual that everyone briefly forgot the Saints were starting a tight end themselves.
The Battle
It was the marquee match of the century, rookie wide receiver Kendall Hinton against tight end Taysom Hill.
The two of them attempted a total of twenty-five passes. Hill led with a 9/16, 78 yard passing day, though his two rushing touchdowns made up for his unimpressive arm. With 124 yards rushing and two touchdowns from surprise workhorse Latavius Murray, the Saints offense was still able to chug along.
A fresh-faced Kendall Hinton lined up at center for the Broncos, attempted nine passes, and completed a single one to tight end Noah Fant for 13 yards. He completed two passes to the Saints.
The Saints defense, unintimidated by the practice squad receiver, was able to prioritize Denver’s rushing game and stifle the entire team to just 113 yards of offense. It was a fascinating display of inefficacy.
Now, while some fans had a great time bashing Hinton for having what was technically one of the worst quarterback outings in NFL history, most gave him credit for simply going out there and giving it his all. As bad as the box score was, Denver gave Hinton an impossible assignment. I’m sure a lot of us have wondered whether or not we’d be able to complete a pass if we were thrust into an NFL game, and I think this afternoon gave us our answer. One pass, maybe.
The Tweet
The head of the social media team seems to have overestimated the hate Kendall Hinton was getting. After the Saints topped the Broncos 31-3, they tweeted this:
There was a game today.
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 29, 2020
The final score is what it is.
Undrafted rookie WIDE RECEIVER @Kendall_Hinton2 came off the practice squad, had zero practice reps and competed in his first NFL game as the Broncos’ QUARTERBACK—an unprecedented situation.
He deserves all the respect. pic.twitter.com/C4UpkPTZBQ
They’re right. Hinton was put in a tough position, and he did what he could. That said, it’s very strange that this essentially serves as the team’s official statement regarding the game. It feels defensive, and the use of ALL CAPS make me imagine John Elway arguing with someone about the game at a bar.
Denver isn’t a victim.
The team meant well when writing the tweet. But the more I think about it, the more tone-deaf it comes across. Hinton was only starting because the team and its quarterback squad didn’t take social distancing and mask wearing seriously enough. And so, as has been repeatedly made clear by the league, they were ruled ineligible.
Denver probably wanted to be seen the same way we see the San Francisco 49ers, who’ve lost dozens of players to injury this year. It would be weird enough to see the 49ers follow up a loss with a tweet along the lines of, “It was a tough game, but eight of our starters just came off the practice squad, so we did what we could!” This is how the Broncos tweet looks. The difference is, unlike with injuries, Denver could have easily prevented this by taking COVID seriously.
It gets worse. Denver’s defense let a tight-end led Saints team score 31 points, even as it became obvious that Hill wasn’t a threat through the air.
It’s not Kendall Hinton’s fault, but from top to bottom, this weekend was an embarrassment for the Broncos. They didn’t enforce COVID rules, their defense didn’t show up, and New Orleans now believes in Taysom Hill.
It’s a week the Broncos should have forgotten about and moved on from. But instead, we have this tweet. It’s a tweet designed to be a tribute to a player most of the organization doesn’t know. It comes across as an excuse for a bad game. Just pretend none of this ever happened, Denver. The poor kid’s been through enough.
For more NFL news and analysis go to Belly Up Sports or follow @bellyupsports. For more articles and idle thoughts about sports, check out my Twitter @zacksphatstacks.
