Colts Reportedly Adding Veteran Quarterback Brett Rypien

INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts have reportedly added a 3rd quarterback ahead of their Week 7 matchup with the Chargers.
Veteran Brett Rypien, who was a backup for the Bengals earlier this season, will now come to the Colts in a reserve role, although where he immediately falls on the depth chart remains to be seen.
Rypien, 29, has been in the NFL since 2019, playing for the Broncos, Rams and Bengals. In 2025, Rypien played just 3 snaps for the Bengals, meaningless 4th quarter action of a 48-10 blowout against the Vikings back in Week 3.
In Rypien’s career, he’s played in 11 games (4 starts), going 98-of-168 (58.3 percent), 4 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, with a yards per attempt of 5.7.
For the final two months of last season, Rypien and Daniel Jones were actually together with the Vikings, with Rypien as the 3rd QB and Jones on the practice squad.
After the Vikings released Rypien at the end of the 2025 training camp, he joined the Bengals, starting on their practice squad and then getting the call-up to be Jake Browning’s backup, following the lengthy toe injury to Joe Burrow.
With the Bengals trading for Joe Flacco last week, Cincinnati released Rypien.
Mark Rypien, the uncle to Brett, did play for the Colts in 2001.
Despite joining the Colts practice squad, Rypien wasn’t one of the four quarterbacks who tried out for the team on Tuesday. That list was as followed: Jeff Driskel, Jaren Hall, Tanner Mordecai, Kyle Trask.
With Wednesday’s first practice arriving ahead of this week’s game against the Chargers, the Colts will have a decision to make later this week in how to handle the 2nd and 3rd quarterback slots behind Daniel Jones.
Expect Rypien to get called up to the active roster for game day, so the Colts can utilize the 3rd quarterback/emergency quarterback rule.
But how the Colts choose between Leonard or Rypien into the backup or 3rd QB roles on game days isn’t known at this time.
For those curious, nearly half of playoff teams in the last 3 years have had to rely on multiple starting quarterbacks over the course of a 17-game season. Shane Steichen experienced that in both of his seasons as the Eagles offensive coordinator.
Daniel Jones has played every meaningful snap in the Colts 6 games this season, although he does have injury history. Jones has been healthy for an entire season only once in his previous six years, missing multiple games in 4 different campaigns.
Now with the Colts having 3 healthy quarterbacks back in their building, a few more questions remain.
How quickly can they get Rypien up to speed? Is it enough to have him in the backup role for Sunday? Or would they rather place him as QB3 (only playing if the starter and backup gets hurt), thus keeping Leonard as the backup for a second straight week?
Leonard has yet to take a regular season snap in the NFL. The 6th round pick was 34-of-56 (60.7 percent) for 345 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception during 3 preseason games. Leonard did have 7 carries for 58 yards.
Remember, with Anthony Richardson Sr. going on injured reserve with his orbital fracture, he has to miss at least 4 games (at Chargers, Titans, at Steelers, Falcons).
Such a discussion is on the back burner right now as the Colts now try to get a new quarterback ready to go in a handful of days.
Tuesday is a players day off for the Colts, but they will get back to practice Wednesday-Friday, before taking on the Chargers this Sunday at 4:05 PM.