Vic Fangio reacts to the Broncos losing Bradley Chubb for the season

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Just as it appeared the Broncos season couldn’t get any worse after their dreadful 0-4 start, the team was delivered a massive blow on Monday.

Bradley Chubb partially tore his ACL against the Jaguars on Sunday and will miss the remainder of the season, Vic Fangio announced. The tear will require surgery.

“It’s a huge loss,” Fangio stated about a player he and his staff have hyped up more than any other player this year. “He’s one of our better players, obviously. He’s a tempo setter. Great player, great person, leader, all of that. So it is a loss.”

And what a loss it is. The second-year player led the Broncos in quarterbacks hits (6), tackles for loss (5) and solo tackles (16). He was one of four Broncos to record a sack on the season after getting Gardner Minshew on Sunday. Additionally, he’s the only player on the team to force a fumble.

The 6-foot-4, 275-pound outside backer appeared to suffer the injury early in the fourth quarter. With 14:12 left in the game, on 2nd-and-10, the Jaguars ran the ball up the middle before running back Ryquell Armstead kicked it out to Chubb’s side. As Chubb was engaged with a Jaguars tight end, he came up hopping and avoided putting any weight on his left knee.

Immediately making his way to the sideline, he tossed his helmet, bent over in agony and was met by trainers. Chubb was examined in the medical tent on the sideline and actually returned to finish the game.

“He hurt his knee at some point in the game, but he felt good enough to come back in,” Fangio explained on Monday, clearly not knowing the extent of the injury during the game. “He actually played that last series pretty damn well—had some really good pass rushes, caused that fumble that we weren’t able to get.”

After the game, Chubb said he was just having cramps. While that was the case, specifically in the third quarter, on Monday morning, Chubb knew there was something else wrong.

“He was as surprised as anybody this morning when he woke up feeling the way he did,” Fangio explained about the team’s star pass rusher.

It certainly won’t be easy to fill the shoes of the 2018 No. 5 overall pick, who has 13 career sacks in 20 career games. Another reason why it won’t be easy to replace him is Chubb’s played in 93 percent of the team’s defensive snaps.

Opposite Von Miller, Fangio will attempt to replace No. 55 “probably [by] more of a committee,” rather than have it all fall on one player’s shoulders.

One of those players who will be in the mix is undrafted Rookie Malik Reed, who recorded his first NFL sack on Sunday and shined during preseason and training camp, and Justin Hollins, who has bounced back and forth from inside to outside this year. Additionally, the team could look for some outside help like Dekoda Watson, who spent all of training camp with the team.

“We’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to look at and see who might be available,” Fangio said.

The Broncos are staring in the face of the worst start in franchise history as the team has never been 0-5. Now they’ll have to try to avoid it without their best young player.