Sam Ehlinger has a theory about backup quarterbacks.
With enough time and enough repetitions in one place, the light bulb eventually comes on.
“Itap just, do you have enough time to develop in order for that to happen?” Ehlinger said after the Broncos beat Atlanta in their preseason opener earlier this month.
The Broncos’ third-string quarterback, now nearing the completion of his second training camp since arriving here as a free agent in the spring of 2025, feels the game starting to click into place for him.
He’s seeing defenses well, he thinks, and he’s received a lot of work through training camp.
Though only a handful of times with anything resembling the Broncos’ top-line players during open camp practices, just being in a second season with head coach Sean Payton, offensive coordinator Davis Webb and company has made a big difference.
“Itap a comfortability with the offense,” Ehlinger told The Post this week. “Obviously a little bit of terminology is different with Davis calling plays, but itap similar concepts. There’s a little bit more, but I think just terminology, lingo and then obviously flow of scheduling and things of that nature. The way Sean likes to run things. There’s just a comfortability with all of that stuff.
“And then, obviously, personnel. You know what guys are good at, what guys aren’t. Where you can throw the ball to certain guys. Things of that nature. So overall, in a lot of different ways, comfortability would be the word.”
Staying in a good situation
Ehlinger, it is well documented, has had chances over the past year to leave Denver. He was released at the roster cutdown last year, but with the understanding he’d be signed back to the practice squad. After Malcolm Roach was put on injured reserve shortly after the cutdown, Ehlinger was back on the 53-man roster before Week 1 arrived. He bounced up and down between the 53-man roster and the practice squad through the season. Then Indianapolis, the team that drafted him in the sixth round in 2021, wanted to sign him off Denver’s practice squad later in the season. He turned down that opportunity to stay with the Broncos then, too.
Then he signed a one-year, $2 million deal that came with $1 million guaranteed before free agency began in March.
Add it all up, and the former University of Texas quarterback has clearly shown to this point that he wants to be in Denver. It would be natural to feel some stress, then, as the NFL’s roster cutdown deadline approaches Sunday, considering starter Bo Nix is entrenched and Jarrett Stidham has received the lion’s share of the No. 2 reps this summer.
Stidham and Ehlinger split the preseason opener against the Falcons, then Stidham played five drives against the Packers on Friday and Ehlinger got one real possession before a couple of run plays in the final minute.
Ehlinger, though, doesn’t give off a stressed vibe in the least.
“Last year was the first year I’d ever been cut, but the Broncos, they were transparent with everything and they took care of me as if I didn’t get cut in the first place,” he said. “When you’re with an organization that you trust, itap not a big deal. I have a great trust with the conversations we’ve had up to this point. Itap kind of like, itap just another day. I think optically it can be, like, ‘Here’s the numbers. Either you did make the roster or you didn’t make the roster or whatever.’
“But knowing you’re in a situation where you’re wanted and you’re comfortable with their word, itap not that big of a deal.”
Prepared when the opportunity arises
There’s an interesting balance happening here for Ehlinger. Everybody wants a shot at playing and being a starter. Those who have had it — Ehlinger did, albeit a brief three-game stint in 2022 — and lost it want another crack.
But it only takes one look around the NFL to see clearly just how much the situation matters for quarterbacks of all stripes.
Ehlinger thinks he’s got a good one for his development right now. He sensed it not long after arriving in Denver in the spring of 2025, after a free agency in which Webb told The Post that he wasn’t interested in many free-agent quarterbacks, but he really wanted to work with Ehlinger.
“When you find a situation where you’re in a great organization, you know you’re going to get better, you’re getting a lot of reps and, God forbid something did happen, you feel like itap a situation where the quarterback is teed up to play well?” Ehlinger said. “You don’t really want to just jump on an opportunity to just go play anywhere.
“Thatap what went into last year as well, having opportunities to go play, itap like, well, I could, but this is a pretty good situation.”
Webb said earlier in camp that he’s seen Ehlinger grow “tremendously” from last year and that he’d trust Ehlinger in a game if it came to that.
Could the coming days result in the chance to perhaps move closer to playing somewhere else if the Broncos cut him? Possible, but Ehlinger sounded like a player more focused on being ready here just in case and preparing for an opportunity to play somewhere further down the line.
“You see a lot of guys, they get a few opportunities early and it doesn’t pan out, whether itap their fault or not, and their career is over,” he said. “I want to be the best prepared I can possibly be for the next opportunity but also be in a situation that is winnable, because I’ve been in a situation where the odds are stacked against you, and thatap not a fun situation.”
