Why Alex Singleton's season-ending ACL injury was "unusual" and showed how "remarkable" his toughness is

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — The Denver Broncos suffered a major blow in the midst of their season-saving win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

“[Alex] Singleton is going to be put on injured reserve,” Sean Payton announced on Wednesday afternoon, minutes after the team’s practice ended in West Virginia.

Singleton was placed on the injured reserve on Wednesday and will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL against the Buccaneers.

“He had an ACL in last week’s game midway through the game,” the head coach explained. “Shoot, he played two-thirds of the game. It was kind of remarkable. And then he reported. He felt a little soreness. We looked at it some more. Sure enough, he’ll be scheduled for surgery about two weeks from now.”

It’s not uncommon for a player to leave the game on a cart after tearing their ACL. Not Singleton. Not only did he not leave the game on a cart, he didn’t even leave the game.

“I’ve never seen anyone play, obviously, that long,” Payton said, about Singleton playing on a torn ACL.

Despite tearing his ACL midway through the first quarter, the defensive captain not only finished the play, he finished the game. And he didn’t miss a single snap.

Singleton tore his ACL on the same play Brandon Jones picked off Baker Mayfield. It was the Buccaneers’ second drive of the game and Denver’s eighth defensive play of the game.

“Shoot that was fairly early,” Payton said. “It’s unusual… I’ve had players that have had ACLs, but I’ve never seen one in this fashion… But that’s pretty remarkable [he finished the game.]”

Singleton, who has been an Ironman throughout his career as he’s rarely missed a single game or even practice, played the final 49 defensive snaps of the game before trainers took a look at his knee after.

“Oh, he was just as surprised,” the head coach said, when asked about Singleton’s reaction to the injury. “He came in. [Vice president of player health & performance] Beau [Lowery] mentioned to me, he said, ‘When we saw him in the training room after the game, he reported some soreness. He said there was some movement, we’re going to go just have an MRI to be sure.'”

When the results came back, Payton was at dinner celebrating the Broncos’ dominant 26-9 win. Payton said everyone was surprised by the devastating news.

“It was tough news,” Payton added. “I was able to look at the MRI. I’ve never seen one where he felt like he could have played another game that night. Now, the next morning, there was swelling.”

Singleton traveled with the Broncos from Tampa to West Virginia, where the team is practicing at The Greenbrier, and will go to New Jersey with the team where they will face the Jets on Sunday.

In two weeks, after the swelling goes down, he’ll have surgery to fix his ACL.

The “fortunate” part of the injury, as Payton said, is Singleton only injured his ACL. No other damage was done to his knee.

On Wednesday, the Broncos signed inside linebackers Kwon Alexander and Zach Cunningham to the practice squad as they look to find Singleton’s replacement.

“We’ve got a lot of options,” the head coach said, when asked how the team will replace the defensive captain. “I’m not going to cover them. We’ve got a handful of guys, probably two or three different directions.”

Alexander started 15 games for Payton and the New Orleans Saints in 2020 and 2021. Payton described him as a “good player” but left his comments about the future of that position there.

“I’m not worried about who takes his spot, it’s everyone picking up the slack in place of him,” Payton added.

Denver’s first win of the season came with a costly loss. But Singleton left it all on the field before his season came to an end.