Denver Broncos: 5 players who could be crushed by short preseason

2. Riley Neal, QB

This news is really detrimental to both of the players vying for the QB3 job in Denver, but at least Brett Rypien has a year in an NFL locker room and some time on the active roster on his resumé.

Riley Neal, a Ball State to Vanderbilt transfer, needs all of the on-field work he can get.

For a QB4 heading into an NFL camp, reps are sparse as it is. To have the preseason cut short means your most likely opportunities to showcase talent — typically the first and fourth preseason games — are off the table.

Now, NFL teams can adjust the way they divide reps in preseason games but the QB3 and QB4 are hurt the most by this, especially the guys with no NFL experience yet.

The preseason games are an opportunity for your backup quarterbacks to win jobs. That’s how Chad Kelly once took first-round pick Paxton Lynch’s job.

I feel like Neal has a chance because of the change in the offensive scheme to make the final roster with the threat of COVID-19 and the apparent need for a third quarterback, but that’s going to be a lot tougher for him without a decent sample size from the preseason.

Neal represents the impossible road ahead for an undrafted player, who need every rep they can get to take someone else’s job.