Derek Wolfe’s status “encouraging” for Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – On Sunday night, in the Denver Broncos worst loss of the season falling to the Oakland Raiders 30-20, the Broncos may have escaped another devastating casualty.

In the third quarter, star defensive lineman Derek Wolfe left the game and did not return with what is reported to be a hairline fracture in his right elbow. While head coach Gary Kubiak would not comment on the specifics on the injury, he did say it was more positive than it could have been.

“Actually, the news is encouraging. We are still evaluating today,” he said during his Monday afternoon press conference. “I don’t know what that means to you guys. We feel like Derek is going to be okay, but we are still evaluating exactly where he is at, so it was encouraging news.”

The initial concern was that Wolfe would need surgery, which would likely make for a longer road to recovery. However, on Monday Kubiak pointed that was not the case at least as of now.

“I just know [head athletic trainer Steve Antonopulos] ‘Greek’ came to me and said ‘good news, we got to go to work on him and get him back,’” the coach explained. “So we will see where he is at. That’s all of the interaction that I have had with Steve today.”

In just over half a season Denver has already had its fair share of elbow injuries. During training camp, offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo suffered a hyper extended elbow that kept him sidelined from July 31 until Sept. 12.

During the first preseason game on Aug. 11, wide receiver Bennie Fowler suffered a small fracture in his elbow that kept him out of game action until September 25. Although Fowler’s injury seems similar to Wolfe’s, Kubiak said the recovery timetable was not necessarily the same.

“I know there was a concern that it was similar to [Fowler] or Sambrailo’s, but no is the answer. So we will see where we go from there,” he said.

Wolfe’s absence, however long it may be, would be another devastating blow to the defense, especially after the way the Raiders controlled the line of scrimmage. While the Broncos’ defense allowed 218 rushing yards, after the game Kubiak noted that it wasn’t because they lost Wolfe.

“They ran the ball on us first. They had over 130 yards rushing in the first half, so you can’t go there,” he explained. “Stopping the run is a group effort. It is what it is. It looked like to me we could tackle better and do a lot of those things better.”

In the next few days Wolfe’s timetable should become more clear, but for now it seems as if the Broncos may have escaped a major injury.