Nathaniel Hackett delivers encouraging news on the injury front as the Broncos turn their sights toward Seattle

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On Tuesday, the Denver Broncos returned from their Labor Day break to start their prep for Week 1 of the NFL season.

Not only did all of the Broncos return from their long weekend off before the start of the season, but every single player returned to the practice field.

Despite multiple players battling through injuries, including Billy Turner, Jonas Griffith and Albert Okwuegbunam, every player practiced as Denver began their prep for the Seattle Seahawks.

“Right now, everybody is going to be practicing,” Hackett said on Tuesday. “We’ll have all of those guys up and see where they’re at.”

Entering the beginning of Week 1 game prep, the Broncos had every single player on their 53-man roster available to practice. That should not be taken for granted after three preseason games along with a full training camp where multiple players went down with injuries.

Despite suffering a dislocated elbow in the first preseason game on Aug. 13, Griffith appears to be on track to play in the season opener. The initial diagnosis indicated he would miss between four and six weeks. Monday night’s opener will mark one day shy of a month since he suffered the gruesome injury.

Griffith would give Denver’s defense a big boost at inside linebacker as he would start alongside Josey Jewell.

On the opposite side of the ball, Turner has been the biggest question mark on if he’ll be available to protect Russell Wilson’s blindside. Turner missed the entire offseason program and all of training camp dealing with a knee injury. He has practiced on and off throughout the preseason, but hasn’t consistently stayed on the practice field for weeks at a time.

“For Billy, in particularly, just comfortable in his sets and everything so he’s ready to go. He’s a veteran, so he’ll know if he’s ready to rock,” Hackett said, when talking about what he needs to see from Turner in practice in order for him to play.

With Tom Compton on the injured reserve and Calvin Anderson struggling over the past month, it’s believed all Turner needs to do to be Denver’s starting right tackle is be ready to play by Monday night. Hackett, however, won’t let Turner play on a limited basis.

“We definitely want him to play the whole game,” Hackett stated. “I’ve been with Billy a long time so I trust he’ll let us know if he’s ready to go.”

Albert O., who is listed as the Broncos’ starting tight end, missed practice following the third preseason game with a “little tightness” in his lower body. No. 85 did practice on Tuesday, indicating his injury is okay.

With all three of those players practicing on Tuesday, Hackett is hoping to see all of them “comfortable” on the practice field. The Broncos will have their normal off day on Wednesday before returning to ramp up game prep for Seattle on Thursday.

Additionally, K.J. Hamler and Randy Gregory—two players who have battled injuries throughout the offseason—appear set to play against Seattle too.

Despite not having a preseason game since Aug. 27, Hackett has waited to install the team’s Week 1 game plan until later this week.

“We really haven’t put anything in officially, we’re just working through some of the things and ideas that we might of had, but it’s so fluid because there’s such a long period of time,” Hackett said, explaining his decision why he’s waited to put in the game plan. “Again, you don’t want the game plan to get dull. We’ll kind of really set into it on Thursday… Up to that point, we’ve just been working on things we might get to.”

As the countdown to the Broncos’ first game is officially under one week, Denver’s health on the field is trending in the right direction.