Tom Brandstater claimed by Colts

The Indianapolis Colts were awarded former Denver Broncos quarterback Tom Brandstater today after putting in a waiver claim.

Brandstater was cut last week by the Broncos.

Now, he'll compete for a backup job behind Peyton Manning in Indianapolis.

The former sixth-round quarterback's workload had been diminished significantly with the arrival this offseason of Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn behind starter Kyle Orton.

"With the way practice was going and the repetitions, we felt like it was clear now that it's time for us to make the decision to go ahead and not try to get everybody reps," Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said last week. "The reps have been dwindling, and to try to continue to keep a guy in a loop where he can be a competitive player on your team with very few reps, it's hard to do.

"I thought this day would come at some point where we'd eventually end up going down to three and we have seven practices, now six left to try to really work with three that are left on the roster and give them the attention that they've earned."

When asked whether Brandstater fit in with the Broncos, McDaniels replied: "I didn't say it wasn't a fit, we've just got three guys who are a better fit than he is."

As for the timing of the release, McDaniels expressed confidence that Brandstater will catch on somewhere else.

"Tom is going to go somewhere else and have an opportunity to make a career for himself," he said. "Certainly nothing that he did that was negative or bad, it just wasn't quite as good as the other guys. That's the NFL."

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