The decision was an easy one for Jim Mace.
In 2011, the defensive coordinator at Rogers High School in Spokane, Wash., was making calls against Shadle Park High late in the season. At the end of a losing year, Shadle Park had decided to give a promising freshman named Brett Rypien a shot at quarterbacking the varsity team.
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“So we decided to blitz the heck out of him,” Mace said.
Shadle Park, a struggling program for years leading up that point, lost the game to Rogers that day. But Mace came away mesmerized by the young quarterback who had almost guided his team all the way back.
“We kept blitzing and he was still able to make plays because he had such a quick release and was able to diagnose what was happening — as a freshman,” Mace said.
Fast forward nine years later and Mace, who became the head coach at Shadle Park during Rypien’s senior season in 2014, saw the same recognition as Rypien came on relief of Jeff Driskel in the fourth quarter of the Broncos’ loss to Tampa Bay. As he completed his first eight NFL throws Sunday, Rypien altered protections at the line of scrimmage, identified extra pass rushers and fired the ball out his right arm quickly and on target.
“At the end of the day he wanted to be blitzed because he said, ‘I’m going to find the matchup. I’m going to trust my guy is going to get there and I’m going to deliver the ball now,'” Mace said. “That was one of the things that made him formidable.”
It’s also a major reason Rypien will make his first NFL start Thursday night when the Broncos visit the New York Jets, an announcement coach Vic Fangio made Tuesday. Denver quarterbacks over the past two weeks have been sacked 13 times for a mind-bending loss of 106 yards — a full football field and an end zone’s worth of negative plays.
Paramount as the Broncos try to snap their three-game losing streak will be an ability to get the ball out before the inevitable pressure the Jets will bring hits the front porch.
“One of Brett’s strengths is that he’s a smart quarterback and does a good job recognizing things,” Fangio said. “Obviously, that’s something that’s always been in his favor.”
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Rypien smashed the Washington state high school record for career passing yards (13,044) and then did the same at Boise State (13,581 yards, also a Mountain West record). You don’t complete more than 15 miles worth of passes at those levels without some arm talent, but it has been the way Rypien’s mind processes information that has helped him overcame his relative physical limitations as a 6-foot-2, 202-pound quarterback.
“He was the kind of guy who, even before the ball was snapped, had gone through this mental checklist, where he pretty much knew where he was going to go with the ball every time,” said Joel Morris, Rypien’s center for three seasons at Shadle Park. “His intelligence on the field was incredible, and you could see that right away.”
Preparation has always set Rypien apart in his career, another reason the Broncos felt comfortable giving the second-year pro his first start during a short week. In high school, Mace said, Rypien would break down film with his dad, Tim (who was also Shadle’s offensive coordinator in 2014), for “three to four hours a day, and that’s not including weekends.”
“He would diagnose every little thing that could happen,” Mace said. “The thing I always like about Brett was not only did he always understand where everybody was supposed to be, but he was able to coach them about, ‘Hey, if the defense does this with their outside linebacker or safety, this is how you adjust your route.’ The kids would learn that from him. Those are things we try to teach players now and it doesn’t always take. He had a way to get it across. It probably helped to know that if they did it right, he was going to get the football to them.”
Tim Rypien, who was professional baseball player in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, said intense preparation has always been a hallmark of his son’s approach. He remembers Brett packing for travel baseball tournaments the day before the family would hit the road, carefully taking stock of everything in his bag.
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“He would lay everything out on his bed and check it, and this was a 10-year-old,” Tim Rypien said. “Once he got to high school, he took it to another level.”
When Rypien was a freshman at Shadle Park, Hudl, a game film service, had just started to become an impactful tool for high school programs. Coaches could monitor how much film their players would log on and consume. Alan Stanfield, Rypien’s coach as a freshman, would routinely check the system and see that the young quarterback had been watching clips of upcoming opponents for longer than seemed possible.
“Coach Stanfield says to me, ‘It says he’s on here for hours and hours. Does he really do that?'” Tim Rypien recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, he really does that.’ He’s always been a film junkie and that preparation has been a big, big part of it. There’s a way to go about watching film and my brother, Mark, really taught him out to do that, showed him what to look for. From there, Brett just became fascinated with the game.'”
Mark, of course, is Brett’s uncle, Mark Rypien, the 11-year NFL quarterback who was MVP of Super Bowl XXVI as Washington’s quarterback. His tutelage was invaluable as Brett developed a love for the position. He also had a mentor in family friend Mike Babcock, the former coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Mike would also stress to Brett preparation,” Tim Rypien said. “He’d say, ‘I can deal with anything as an athlete, but not being prepared is something I can’t deal with because that’s something I can control.’ So it started young for Brett.”
His affinity for well-organized planning, which he has displayed since entering the Broncos’ organization as an undrafted free agent in 2019, should help Rypien as he takes over Denver’s quarterback mantle — the ninth different player to do so since Peyton Manning retired in 2016 — with a short runway to Thursday’s game. Again, Rypien, who began each of the last two seasons on Denver’s practice squad, is likely to face an abundance of pressure against the Jets. Below is a list of how frequently opponents have blitzed the Broncos — five or more pass rushers — and where that figure ranked in the league that week, according to Sportradar.
Team | Blitz rate | Rank |
|---|---|---|
39.40% | 7th | |
67.40% | 1st | |
62.20% | 1st |
Add in the fact the Broncos will be breaking in a new starting right tackle in veteran Demar Dotson — Elijah Wilkinson landed on the injured-reserve list Tuesday with a hairline shin fracture — and there’s little doubt the desperate Jets, whose 33.7 percent blitz rate this season ranks 10th in the NFL, will try create some chaos for Rypien.
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“Anytime you have a game like you had against Pittsburgh, the league is a copycat league so they’re going to do it until you prove that you can handle it,” Fangio said.
An injury to Drew Lock in Pittsburgh cracked open an opportunity for Rypien, and that crack grew when Driskel struggled in his first start of the season against the Buccaneers. But Rypien wouldn’t be starting Thursday were it not for what he showed on his lone drive Sunday, when he completed 8-of-9 passes for 53 yards. The lone incompletion was an interception Rypien threw in the end zone as he was trying to fit a pass into a tight window for Jerry Jeudy and a fourth-and-1 play.
It wasn’t just the string of completions that impressed. Early in the drive, Rypien pointed out safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who earlier in the game had gone unaccounted for as he screamed off the edge and sacked Driskel, and shifted protection his direction. Left tackle Garett Bolles easily picked up Winfield and Rypien was able to deliver the ball up the middle to Jeudy for a big gain. He’ll need to make similar adjustments Thursday if the Broncos are to finally ignite an offense that is once again languishing toward the bottom of the NFL.
Nothing is guaranteed for Rypien past Thursday. Blake Bortles, the veteran Denver signed last week to add depth at the position in Lock’s absence, could be an option to start in New England in Week 5 if Lock isn’t ready to return. Fangio even said that Driskel could still play against the Jets in certain situations, depending on how the game unfolds.
But for now, Rypien is on the doorstep of realizing a dream set in motion when he was 12 years old, when he asked his dad to pin a homemade poster onto the ceiling above his bed. The sign contained three words: NFL or bust.
“He’s going to be ready for it,” said Morris, Rypien’s high school teammate. “Obviously, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I definitely know he’s going to put himself in the best position. There’s no doubt about that.”
(Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
