Broncos' backup QBs looking to 'open up' the offense in preseason finale

Watching Kevin Hogan and Brett Rypien operate from the quarterback position last week vs. the L.A. Rams was painful at times. The Denver Broncos' offense was stagnant and it resulted in a boring game.

However, heading into the preseason finale vs. the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night, both Hogan and Rypien are hoping to spice things up a bit offensively, in what will be their last chance to make a case for the Broncos' 53-man roster.

“I just want to go out and make some big plays, put on a show for the fans and have fun," Hogan said on Tuesday. "I think we need to be able to open it up a little bit. I think that's what we're going to do. I'm expecting some successful drives and some points on the board.”

In four preseason games, the Broncos have only scored four touchdowns. One, a Khalfani Muhammad touchdown run on a drive quarterbacked by Hogan, two, a Juwann Winfree fourth-quarter score thrown by Brett Rypien in the Hall of Fame Game, three, a Drew Lock pass to Devontae Jackson and four, an 'oh-s**t' madcap scramble by Hogan vs. the Niners.

Since that Hogan scramble, it's been crickets offensively for Denver. Nobody expects fireworks of any sort in the preseason, but I will say this; I can't remember the last time a Broncos' preseason seemed so lackluster from a touchdown-production standpoint.

These two young QBs are hoping to turn that ship around, though. Head coach Vic Fangio wants to see one of these signal-callers create some clear separation, so that the Broncos can have clarity on their decision to name a short-term backup to open the regular season. The onus is on the players to provide a spark vs. Vance Joseph's Cardinals defense.

“It’s tough to say right now, we haven’t really gotten into the gameplan," Rypien said on Tuesday. "We kind of dove into it a little bit but we won’t necessarily see all of it until tomorrow on gameday, so we’ll see as the week progresses but yeah it would be nice to open it up, for sure.”

For what it's worth, if we're comparing Hogan vs. Rypien, it was the latter who showed any kind of propensity for 'opening it up' in the Rams game. Rypien took a semi-deep shot in the red zone to Juwann Winfree that was a miscommunication and uncatchable. Later, Rypien went deep to a wide-open and streaking Fred Brown but overthrew it.

Meanwhile, Hogan has been Mr. Horizontal as a QB. Everything seems to be within a 10-yard umbrella, with Hogan seemingly throwing the checkdown more often than not. He might be playing it safe but that's not how he's going to create separation over Rypien.

While we're on the topic, the pedantic and conservative comportment of the Broncos' offense this summer is not an open-and-shut reflection on new OC Rich Scangarello. As a new play-caller in the NFL, the last thing Scangarello wants to do is take away from the one advantage he has and give away any tells to opponents by throwing the full scope of his offense out there during the preseason. This has been the epitome of 'vanilla' offense.

We can't judge Scangarello's scheme and play design until the Broncos get to the regular season. However, we can judge these two young QBs, who at this point, have played the Broncos into a situation where the team brass are more likely to look for veteran help on the waiver wire than anoint either Hogan or Rypien the backup, even if it is short-term.

If I'm Brett Rypien, I'm going into this preseason finale guns blazing. He's got nothing to lose. He's already been guaranteed $146K whether he makes the roster, practice squad or is waived.

The odds lie with the modest veteran, Hogan, in terms of NFL coaches making decisions based on fear of loss instead of hope of gain. So if Rypien's going to make a case for that backup QB job behind Joe Flacco while Drew Lock's throwing thumb heals up, he's got to swing for the fences.

I'm not usually a mixed-sport metaphor guy but it's simply the best way to say it.

Swing away, Brett.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen.

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