Kyle Sloter is guaranteed one thing (barring an injury between now and Thursday): He’ll be starting at quarterback for the Denver Broncos on Thursday in their preseason finale.
After Sloter faces the Arizona Cardinals, all bets are off.
The undrafted free agent out of Northern Colorado has become the feel-good story of training camp. Brought in to serve as a camp arm while Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch battled for the starting job, Sloter has turned heads among the fan base with solid performances in the first three preseason games.
So after it was announced Monday that Lynch (who was named the backup to Siemian last week) will miss time into the first few weeks of the regular season with a shoulder injury, it looked like a window might have opened for Sloter to make the 53-man roster.
Don’t count on it quite yet, says Les Shapiro of Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7.
Shapiro, who has been covering the Broncos for over 30 years, isn’t ready to book a roster spot for the former UNC Bear.
Shapiro asked head coach Vance Joseph after Monday’s practice if he would feel comfortable with Sloter as the backup in the regular season with Lynch injured.
The coach hedged somewhat in his response.
“He’s played solid. Right now, he’s the backup guy,” Joseph said. “Moving forward, there are going to be a lot of things happening between Friday and Saturday. There are going to be 1,100 released for the first time in NFL history. It could go a number of ways. But, right now, he’s played very well. It’s his offense on Thursday night.”
Shapiro believes the Broncos will look for a veteran quarterback once cuts are made this coming weekend.
Keep in mind, Sloter played just one season at quarterback in college – his senior year at Northern Colorado (2016). He passed for 2,656 yards and 29 touchdowns (10 interceptions) with the Bears. Before that he was a receiver for both UNC (2015) and Southern Miss (2013-14).
Joseph did leave the door open to carrying three quarterbacks, reinforcing his point about the roster cutdown that will happen Saturday.
“Everything is possible right now,” Joseph said about carrying three quarterbacks, “everything. It’s going to be moving pieces from now until Saturday. It’s going to be a huge weekend for this whole league. Everything is possible.”
Sloter himself doesn’t seem to be caught up in the hype about possibility of his time with the Broncos extending beyond the weekend.
“I think that’s a possibility, but that’s not within my control,” Sloter said about his chances to make the 53-man roster. “That’s up to them – my job is just to go out there and do the best that I can, and I’m really just playing, like they say, for a job.”
Listen to Shapiro’s full analysis of the Broncos’ backup quarterback situation in the podcast below.
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