Week 14’s arrival means battered and bruised bodies are taking the field weekly for the Denver Broncos.
This week, the Broncos will go without at least two defensive starters and one on offense in T.J. Ward and Danny Trevathan on D and Peyton Manning on O.
Ward, who is nursing a high ankle sprain, will sit out for his third straight week. David Bruton would likely start in Ward’s place but Bruton is still sore following a week of practice and his sprained knee which was sustained in the win over the San Diego Chargers.
“Bruton actually came out to do just a little bit today. He’s still really, really sore,” head coach Gary Kubiak stated from dove valley Friday. “We thought between him and Omar that he may have the better chance of the two to maybe give us a little help this weekend, but we’ll have to see where he is. He’s pretty sore today.”
The safety’s injuries is why Denver signed Josh Bush and then Shiloh Keo to bolster the defensive backfield with more depth.
“The good news is that he [Bush] was with us throughout the course of the offseason and played a little bit last week, so I’m comfortable,” Kubaik said. “I think that getting Shiloh Keo here, knowing our defense and the situation that we’re in that he can go in there and know exactly what’s going on, which is really important to us right now. Probably the biggest thing is that it’s filtered through special teams and those types of things have some big concerns. We just have to muster it up and find a way. That’s part of what we do.”
Another starter in Danny Trevathan, who enjoyed a pick-6 off Philip Rivers last week, is out. Starting instead will be Todd Davis, Gary Kubiak told the media Friday. Brandon Marshall will move over to Trevathan’s spot and then Davis will play Marshall’s position.
Nobody on Denver’s staff is higher on Davis than Kubiak. “I like him a lot. He’s very detailed. I’ll say this, no player has had a better week of practice than that guy from me watching practice. I’m excited to see him play. There’s a lot on his plate. He still does special teams stuff and those types of things, but he’s worked really hard for this opportunity, so I’m excited to watch him play.”
Davis himself is elated to have the opportunity to start for the orange and blue Sunday against a division rival.
“It feels great,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for me. The defense is playing so well, so it’s just a tremendous blessing to be able to come in and be able to play on a defense that’s doing so well. I know that Danny Trevathan is going to get back healthy, but in the meantime, I’m going to take full advantage of the opportunity.”
Davis also added “one of the very first games that I started last year was against the Raiders. It feels good.”
Luckily for the defense, Kubiak said DeMarcus Ware has a “damn good chance” to play Sunday. Ware hasn’t played in four weeks due to a bad back and will be a welcome sight opposite of Von Miller on the NFL’s No. 1 defense in terms of sacks (41).
On the offense, Ronnie Hillman will start and C.J. Anderson is questionable. If Anderson can’t play, Juwan Thompson will be the second running back this week with the Oakland Raiders in town. “Ronnie is ready to go,” Kubaik stated. “Ronnie will start. Ronnie is ready to go. He practiced well today. I think he’ll be fine.”
Having three running back suit up for the 2:05 p.m. MST start time is not something Kubiak has ruled out at this point.
“Obviously you want that,” he explained. “I’ve played with two before. On a given day, you kind of have some emergency ways that you could go about it. We just kind of have to look at the big picture right now. We have through tomorrow to make some of those decisions, look at the big picture and see what we think gives us the best chance this weekend.”
Peyton Manning did some light drill work but still will be out this week. When asked if Manning would be walking the sidelines Sunday, Kubiak was blunt. “You know what, I don’t know.“
