Broncos Notebook: What to do with Jake Butt

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — After an encouraging performance in Saturday’s preseason game, Broncos tight end Jake Butt has hit yet another bump in his road to recovery.

When Butt didn’t practice on Monday, it was framed that he was simply getting an extra day off to recover from the game, but the message changed on Tuesday afternoon when head coach Vic Fangio announced he would not practice.

“He won’t play in this game, and he may miss some time,” he said. “When he starts to feel good and plays or practices, it flares back up again. It’s just something we’re going to have to deal with here.”

There are two sides of this for Jake Butt.

1. He has to be endlessly frustrated with this process.
2. He should be encouraged by the semantics from Vic Fangio.

From my view, Fangio sounded like a guy who is not yet ready to give up on Jake Butt, and to me, that’s the right approach.

While I’ve seen many fans and media suggest that it’s time to cut bait with Butt, that wouldn’t make much sense to me. After going through all of this with Butt, there’s no reason to not see it through to the end.

Additionally, outside of Noah Fant, the Broncos are severely lacking in the “ceiling” department when it comes to the tight end position. Why pull the cord on a guy who is cheap and still does have that high ceiling?

If I were in charge, I would put Butt on the initial 53-man roster and then move him to IR, giving you the chance to bring him back this year after eight weeks, and sit him down until then.

Where Butt went wrong was rushing back onto the field for training camp. Take your chance to correct that now and give him ample time to recover without pressure.

On the other hand, Denver could decide that the $645,000 they owe Butt this year is too much for a guy who simply hasn’t been able to contribute since he got to Denver.

This will be an interesting one to follow come cut day.

Other Notes

• Fangio said after practice that he has not yet decided which quarterback will start Thursday’s game against the Cardinals, but did say that both Kevin Hogan and Brett Rypien will play.
• Vic Fangio, who many players have said isn’t one to give out too many compliments, was a bit bashful when alerted of a compliment to him.
  • In a recent ESPN article, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur all said Fangio’s defense was the toughest in the league to prepare for.
    • “I wasn’t aware of that. They said that? That was nice of them. I don’t know what to say. It’s better than the alternative, them saying the easiest right. Nice of them to say that. I appreciate it.”
• The head coach said there wasn’t much debate about setting down the starters for the preseason even though they will now go three weeks without playing a real game.
  • “I think part of the reason too was that made it more logical for us to do was we had that short week. To have them play last week, they would have gone from a Monday to a Saturday. So, we wanted to get some quality practice time in and not conserve them as much that way. That played a part in it.”
• Asked if he wished Joe Flacco got more reps, Fangio had a pretty great answer.
  • “He did have an opportunity for a few more, but it was our decision led by me that we pulled him out of those games when we did. You can’t look back. If we wanted him to get more, it was there for him to get, but I feel good where he’s at.