ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As the Broncos prepare for a Week 4 game against the New York Jets, they will turn to Brett Rypien as their starting quarterback.
Rypien, a second-year player, will make the first start of his young career when the team travels to New York for "Thursday Night Football," Head Coach Vic Fangio announced Tuesday.
"We've had a year and a second training camp and a couple weeks with Brett here," Fangio said. "We just think he deserves a chance here to see how he can do here, as a starter with albeit a short week of preparation and take a look at Brett that way."
Fangio said the team has the ability to "mix Jeff [Driskel] in" if the Broncos think they need to do so.
For just the 10th time in franchise history, though, the Broncos will have a different starter at quarterback in three consecutive games.
Drew Lock started the team's Week 2 game against the Steelers, Driskel manned the offense against the Bucs and now Rypien will get his turn against the Jets. The Broncos last had different starting quarterbacks in three consecutive games in 2017 when Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian rotated in during the latter half of the season. Before that, the Broncos hadn't turned to three different starting quarterbacks in consecutive weeks since 1983.
Rypien is the team's ninth quarterback to start a game since Peyton Manning retired at the end of the 2015 season. He joins Siemian, Lynch, Osweiler, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Brandon Allen, Lock and Driskel on the growing list.
"I think no matter who we're playing right now, we definitely need a win," Rypien said. "So yeah, that's the main focus. The focus for me is just to try to get better these next two days. We're not going to get a lot of reps full speed with the guys. It's [about] the mental reps and making sure I'm dialed in on protections and things like that. If we can do that, we can go out there and get the ball moving on Thursday night."
Rypien was active three times last season as Denver's backup quarterback but never saw game action.
He took his first regular-season snaps in Week 3 when he replaced Jeff Driskel in the fourth quarter. Rypien finished his lone drive 8-of-9 for 53 yards and an interception. The pick came on fourth-and-1 from the Tampa Bay 13-yard line as Rypien looked for Jerry Jeudy in the end zone.
The Broncos mustered 13 first downs and 226 yards against the Buccaneers, and Denver gained three of those first downs and 55 yards in Rypien's only drive.
Rypien, who went undrafted in 2019, finished his Boise State career with a 64 percent completion percentage, nearly 14,000 yards, 90 touchdowns and a 149.3 quarterback rating.
