Broncos prevent Cardinals from stealing young quarterback

The Denver Broncos have been having to play a little keep-away with players on their practice squad here late in the 2022 season. Last week, their rival Las Vegas Raiders stole offensive lineman Netane Muti away and Muti chose an opportunity with the Raiders over an opportunity to join the Denver Broncos’ 53-man roster.

This week, they are having to play keep-away again only this time, it seems they were successful in doing so. The Arizona Cardinals attempted to sign quarterback Jarrett Guarantano off the Broncos practice squad, but the Broncos offered him a promotion to the active roster and according to Brandon Krisztal, he took it.

Broncos news: Team signing QB Jarrett Guarantano to active roster

At this particular point in time, it doesn’t seem like this has anything to do with the health or status of quarterback Russell Wilson for the team’s Christmas game against the Los Angeles Rams. The Broncos could have let Wilson play on Sunday against the Cardinals, but they opted to give him an additional week of recovery instead and have been planning on Wilson playing against the Rams.

Unless Wilson suffered an unknown setback, Jarrett Guarantano’s promotion to the active roster has nothing to do with no. 3 and everything to do with late-season roster gymnastics. At this time of year, poaching is almost inevitable and teams have to deal with it a lot because spots are opening up with more and more players landing on IR.

This is an inexpensive way to get guys on your roster for the 2023 offseason, and the Broncos would rather have Guarantano than let him take whatever opportunity the Cardinals are offering right now. Perhaps they see a future QB2 in Guarantano.

We may not see Guarantano until the 2023 preseason for the Denver Broncos, if at all, but clearly the team’s pro scouting department and perhaps the coaching staff the last couple of weeks have liked him enough to make sure he sticks around beyond this season.

One interesting connection for Guarantano on this coaching staff is wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni, who was an assistant with the Tennessee program when Guarantano was recruited to play for the Vols. He ended up transferring later on in his college years but those two undoubtedly crossed paths in Knoxville.

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What will Guarantano’s role be for the Denver Broncos going forward? Will this be Brett Rypien’s final few games as the QB2 of the team? We’re fixin’ to find out, as Gary Kubiak used to famously say.