Say this for the 2023 Broncos: They’ve been remarkably healthy.
Whether or not the team can take advantage of that down the stretch — or if it lasts — remains to be seen, of course. But for now, it sets Denver up well heading into a tough divisional road test against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Sean Payton’s team had no injury limitations for Thursday’s practice on its 53-man roster. Denver had 51 full participants and the only two players who didn’t practice — defensive lineman Mike Purcell and tight end Chris Manhertz — were held out on veteran rest days rather than because of injury.
The Broncos had several players limited Wednesday, including some key ones like All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II (knee), defensive lineman Zach Allen (elbow) and right tackle Mike McGlinchey (knee), but they were all fully back in action Thursday.
The Chargers, by contrast, had four players who didn’t practice Thursday, three more who were limited and two who practiced fully after being limited earlier in the week.
It’s a stark turnaround from last year, when Denver was consistently among the most-injured teams in the NFL.
The Broncos have seven players on injured reserve currently and five of them — receivers Tim Patrick and Jalen Virgil, nickel K’Wuan Williams, linebacker Jonas Griffith and tackle Alex Palczewski — were injured during training camp. Safety Caden Sterns went down Week 1 and tight end Greg Dulcich was hurt in Week 1 and again in Week 6.
Dulcich has been running and working out with the training staff during practices the past two weeks, but has not yet had his 21-day window for return opened by the team.
Lombardi faces familiar foe. Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi will have a pretty good idea of the Chargers’ personnel this weekend.
After all, he spent the past two seasons as the club’s offensive coordinator. Lombardi was fired from that role and landed back with Payton, for whom he’d worked extensively in New Orleans.
“It’s a different coach over there, a different guy calling plays, so there’s maybe some insights on players, but they’re getting most of their information off the film,” Lombardi said.
Payton’s similarly downplayed the impact familiarity has in these situations over the course of the season, but did say that Lombardi helped answer questions during the preparation process.
“When we went through our Monday pro report, we talked about their offensive personnel with our defensive staff,” Payton said. “Our pro scouts are there. They were at the (Chargers) game in New England. They’ve been advancing this team for, let’s say for four weeks. They will give you all the pertinent injury information and everything that you need, including the depth chart.
“Joe sat in that meeting and periodically if there was a question, a good majority of those players were there.”
Williams wins award. Among the Broncos who have been surprisingly healthy this year is running back Javonte Williams.
The third-year player, who tore his ACL and LCL in October 2022, has played in 11 of 12 games this season and is Denver’s leading rusher.
Williams on Thursday was named the Broncos’ recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award.
“It’s a great honor. Just seeing how the guys support me. Hearing (quarterback Russell Wilson) and the general manager (George Paton) talking about me and them seeing how hard I’ve been working the whole time. Just being able to come out and play with the guys, it was really for them. I know it’s a single award, but it’s really for them.”
For most of the offseason, Broncos coaches didn’t expect Williams to be available at the start of the schedule. Instead, he’s carried the ball 153 times for 584 yards and also caught 29 passes. His 50% usage rate is right in line with the 54% last year before he got hurt and 51% as a rookie.
“It was a pretty tough injury that I had to come back from, but if I’m judging myself, I feel like there’s still a lot of plays I’ve left out there,” he said. “I can play a whole lot better and just help my o-line out. Everything’s not going to be perfect, but just the type of player and person I am, there’s still some stuff I’ve got to do on the field.”
The award is named for longtime Baltimore Colts trainer Ed Block. Recent Broncos recipients include receivers KJ Hamler (2022) and Courtland Sutton (2021) and outside linebacker Bradley Chubb (2020).
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