ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos are one snap, or so, from life imitating art at quarterback.

But wide receiver Jordan Taylor, better known as "Sunshine" to teammates throughout his time with the Broncos in a cinematic nod to the quarterback in the film "Remember The Titans," will work as Denver's emergency quarterback this week. Taylor, who also happens to be battling for one of the final receiver spots on the depth chart, threw for 3,766 yards and ran for 2,500 yards in his career as a quarterback at Denison (Texas) High School.

But he said after Monday's practice he last took a snap in a game at quarterback in 2010.

"[It's] going on seven years, so it's been a little while," Taylor said.

The Broncos find themselves in a tight squeeze at quarterback given Paxton Lynch's sprained right shoulder. Lynch suffered the injury in his eight snaps of work in the Broncos' preseason win against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night.

Broncos coach Vance Joseph said after Monday's practice that Lynch could miss "a couple" of regular-season games as Trevor Siemian's backup. The Broncos also don't want to play Siemian in Thursday night's preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals given he and the other starters are going to get the night off.

That leaves undrafted rookie Kyle Sloter, who will start Thursday night and is expected to play the entire game, as the only available quarterback other than Siemian. So, Taylor is on the fast track this week to get ready to take a smattering of snaps if needed in Thursday's game.

He worked with Siemian some Monday on "basic snap procedures." Taylor was switched to wide receiver when he arrived at Rice and started 37 of his 42 career games with the Owls.

Taylor said he would be ready if the Broncos needed him to play behind center against the Cardinals.

"It'll be fun, it will be a chance to go out and do something, do something different for sure," Taylor said. "It's been a long time since I played quarterback, so we'll see how it goes ... I'll dial up whatever they dial up. It would be nice to throw a deep ball. And we might, I might get in there and check a 'go' ball, we'll see."

The issue becomes what the Broncos will do to open the season at quarterback given Lynch is expected to miss at least the Sept. 11 regular-season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Sept. 17 game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Siemian is the team's starter and the expectation has been Sloter was headed to the practice squad as the Broncos would keep two quarterbacks when the cut to 53 players is made this weekend. If they are forced to keep a third quarterback for the season's opening few weeks -- possibly a veteran quarterbacks who is released from another team before Saturday's deadline -- it could cost them a player at another crowded spot on the depth chart they won't be able to get back.

"Every option is going to explored, right now we're not this week," Joseph said. "We're going to give Kyle the start [Thursday] and if Kyle is tying his shoe, we'll put Trevor in and run the football. ... There's going to be 1,100 players released for the first time in history. It can go a number of ways, but [Sloter] has played well and it's his offense on Thursday night."