The Broncos are hoping Jerry Jeudy’s hamstring injury heals quickly.
They’re banking on it, in fact.
General manager George Paton confirmed Tuesday that Denver’s top receiver will not start the season on short-term injured reserve.
Jeudy came up grabbing his right hamstring during practice last Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams and had to be carted to the sideline. The normal recovery for a moderate, or Grade 2, hamstring injury starts at four weeks. Jeudy was injured 17 days before the regular season.
If he had been placed on injured reserve Wednesday, he would have had to miss at least the first four weeks of the season.
Instead, the Broncos are hoping to get him back somewhere in an opening run that includes home games against Las Vegas and Washington, then road contests at Miami and Chicago.
Denver’s six wide receivers in practice Tuesday — not including Michael Bandy, who was waived immediately after practice — were Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr., Brandon Johnson, Marquez Callaway and Lil’Jordan Humphrey.
Browning to miss at least four games. Outside linebacker Baron Browning, on the other hand, will begin the season on reserve/physically unable to perform as expected.
That means the third-year outside linebacker, who had offseason knee surgery, will miss at least Denver’s first four games. At that point, he has a window of several weeks to return to practice.
“He’s making great progress,” Paton said. “I think he’s ahead of schedule. He’s working. We feel like we’ll get him — it has to be four weeks, but we’ll see shortly thereafter.”
Undrafted parade. At the Centura Health Training Center, 2023 is the year of the undrafted free agent.
Four made the Broncos’ initial 53-man roster: Running back Jaleel McLaughlin, tight end Nate Adkins, offensive lineman Alex Palczewski and outside linebacker Thomas Incoom.
That can be construed as either a pat on the back to Denver’s scouting department after a draft in which they made only five selections or an indictment on the club’s overall roster depth.
In this case, perhaps a bit of both is at play.
McLaughlin made his case almost immediately. The former Youngstown State and D-II Notre Dame College star showed speed from the start and by the middle of camp had essentially earned his spot.
“In San Francisco when our game ended, I knew he was on track to be on our team or on somebody else’s if we chose not to put him on our roster,” Payton said.
Adkins, meanwhile, made Albert Okwuegbunam expendable by showing a combination of toughness, versatility and reliability. He can play in-line and off the ball, Payton said.
“The versatility, the toughness, the smarts, he’s a football player,” Paton said. … “We were really fortunate to get him as an undrafted free agent. He’s been everything we thought.”
Incoom got the most guaranteed money in Denver’s rookie free agent class, and Palczewski, who dislocated a finger in the preseason finale Saturday that may cost him a few weeks, drew praise recently from Payton for his ability to get the job done even when his play isn’t pretty.
“Getting them here is one thing, and then going by what you see is the other,” Payton said. “I think it’s important for your team where the best players are on the roster regardless of how you got here. I don’t know any other way to do it. And I think if you start trying to get around that and look at players differently based on how they were acquired, then I think right away you go down the wrong path.”
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