The Broncos’ Ironman is out. And Caden Sterns is up.
Justin Simmons suffered a quad injury in the Broncos’ Week 1 loss in Seattle. The team placed him on injured reserve Wednesday, meaning he’ll miss a minimum of four games. Sterns, a second-year pro, will take over at free safety for Simmons, who had started 66 consecutive games.
“My job is to make sure there’s no fall-off behind Simmons,” Sterns said. “Communication, my play, my physicality — just making sure I do my part. We have some exceptional safeties now in Simmons and (Kareem) Jackson, but I feel comfortable back there. I’m going to do the same thing as I did last year in that spot, just go in there, hold my own and make plays.”
Sterns, the team’s dime back in defensive sub-packages, is also the primary backup safety behind both Simmons and Jackson. With Sterns taking over for Simmons on Sunday against the Texans at Empower Field, P.J. Locke will play the dime.
While Sterns (15 games played and two starts as a rookie, with two interceptions) has some experience on the back end heading into his elevated role over the next month, Locke played a full game at the dime in the 2021 season finale against the Chiefs, and said “it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“I played a similar role in college (at Texas), because I played nickel so I played closer to the line of scrimmage all throughout college,” Locke said. “I know our defense very well too, and I’m familiar with this role.”
Head coach Nathaniel Hackett said Simmons’ injury occurred late in the second half of Monday’s 17-16 upset defeat at Lumen Field.
The leader of the Broncos’ defense, Simmons paced Denver with 14 interceptions over the last three years. That included five picks in both ’20 and ’21, and last year Simmons’ 80 tackles were second only to Jackson. Simmons is a two-time second-team All-Pro who is one of two active players in the NFL with at least 400 total tackles and 20 interceptions since he entered the league as a third-round pick out of Boston College in 2016.
Until being pulled in a Week 3 blowout win at home over the Jets last year, Simmons never came off the field, as he played 3,212 consecutive snaps over 48 games in three seasons. The quad injury marks Simmons’ second career IR stint, as he was also placed on the list for the final three weeks of 2017 with an ankle injury.
“It’s hard to replace a guy like Justin Simmons, what he does for our defense and what he does for our team in the locker room with his leadership,” Kareem Jackson said. “It’s tough. Everybody in the community knows what type of guy he is.”
In response to Simmons’ injury, the Broncos signed veteran safety Anthony Harris to the practice squad. Harris, 30, is an eighth-year pro who spent six seasons in Minnesota when Broncos GM George Paton worked in the Vikings’ front office.
Harris appeared in 81 games for the Vikings, with 47 starts, and most recently played for the Eagles last year (72 tackles, three passes defensed and an interception in 14 starts). He has 356 tackles and 10 interceptions on his career, with 31 passes defensed.
The Broncos also promoted cornerback Essang Bassey to the active roster, taking Simmons’ spot. After making the team as an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest in 2020, last season was rocky for Bassey, who went to the Chargers and back on waivers before a solid training camp secured him a back-end roster spot this year.
Bassey has appeared in 14 career games, with three starts, two passes defensed and one interception.
