Kendall Hinton Talks 'Amazing' Opportunity to Start for Broncos vs. Saints

Kendall Hinton accentuated the positive after he was thrust into the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback role for Sunday's 31-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints.  

Hinton told reporters this wasn't how he had envisioned making his NFL debut but that it was an "amazing" opportunity:

The 23-year-old also lamented how little time he had to prepare.

"I honestly don't feel like I played nearly to be the best of my ability," he said to reporters. "... A day or two of practice definitely would've helped."

Denver entered the day without an eligible quarterback. Jeff Driskel went on the reserve/COVID-19 list, while Blake Bortles, Drew Lock and Brett Rypien were flagged as close contacts.

As a result, the Broncos had to turn to Hinton, an undrafted rookie who threw 251 passes over a five-year career at Wake Forest. 

Not surprisingly, the experiment didn't go well. Hinton finished 1-of-9 for 13 yards and two interceptions. He was basically in a no-win situation.

Rather than criticizing Hinton, head coach Vic Fangio directed his ire to the quarterbacks who weren't there.

"I was disappointed on several levels, that our QBs put us in that position, that our QBs put the league in that position," he told reporters. "We count on them to be the leaders of our team, the leaders of our offense, and those guys made a mistake. I haven't done a good enough job of selling the protocols to them when they're on their own. That's on me."

Hinton would probably make incremental improvements on the field if he had a full week to prepare for the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13.

In the event the Broncos are again without any of Driskel, Bortles, Lock or Rypien, they'd likely still be better off with a more experienced quarterback on a temporary basis.