ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A dark cloud hovered over an otherwise bright and sunshiny day as the Denver Broncos dominated the New York Giants on their way to a 1-0 start.
That cloud, of course, was the horrific injury Jerry Jeudy suffered in the third quarter.
While initially Jeudy’s gruesome injury looked potentially season ending, the dark cloud spared the Broncos, only revealing a high ankle sprain.
After an MRI on Monday morning, Vic Fangio confirmed the star receiver “definitely” has a high ankle sprain and he’ll “miss some time.” As of now, the Broncos believe Jeudy won’t need surgery and are just focusing on his recovery, but they are “looking at all options.”
According to Adam Schefter, Jeudy will be sidelined four to six weeks.
With that timetable, the former first-round pick will return either in Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Week 7 against the Dallas Cowboys or Week 8 against the Washington Football Team.
That would leave the Broncos without Jeudy for at least their road games against the Jaguars (Week 2) and Steelers (Week 5) and their home games against the New York Jets (Week 3) and Baltimore Ravens (Week 4).
Fangio and George Paton have not yet discussed placing Jeudy on the injured reserve. However, with his four-to-six-week timeframe, the I.R. would be the way to go.
If he’s placed on the I.R., Jeudy would be eligible to return after missing three weeks, meaning he would be available for Week 5 against the Steelers—a week before his medical timeline suggests he’ll be ready.
Placing him on the I.R. would open up a roster spot for the Broncos to use, potentially for bringing up a receiver from their practice squad to the active roster. Denver’s four receivers on the practice squad are Tyrie Cleveland, Seth Williams, Kendall Hinton and De’Mornay Pierson-El. Fangio said they have yet to make a decision if they will bring one of them up.
However, don’t expect one of those players to have a sizable role in the offense if they are brought up. Instead, Denver will look to their remaining top three wide outs to fill the void.
“It will be a great opportunity,” Fangio said, when asked about what type of opportunity it presents for K.J. Hamler. “Now you’ve got all the snaps being divided up by three instead of four. I like the three we’ve got.”
Tim Patrick, Courtland Sutton and Hamler “will get the bulk” of Jeudy’s snaps, Fangio added.
“Tim’s a bonafide NFL receiver,” Fangio stated.
Although Jeudy was the team’s leading receiver, even despite missing over a quarter of the game, the Broncos are already adapted to receiver by committee. Teddy Bridgewater completed a pass to nine different players on Sunday.
Despite only one catch, Sutton played in 80 percent of the offensive snaps, Hamler played in 36 percent of the snaps and Patrick played in 70 percent of the snaps against the Giants. Expect all three of those percentages to go up with Jeudy sidelined.
Losing rising-star Jerry Jeudy is a big blow to Denver’s offense. But Jeudy only sidelined four to six weeks is not nearly as bad as the injury initially appeared.
