Drew Sanders will miss significant time after injuring a tendon in his foot during practice on Saturday.
Sean Payton quickly commented on the injury, and also explained his calendar to limit other veterans and players coming off injuries.
Today, the Denver Broncos practice in full pads for the first time in their 2025 training camp.
Drew Sanders will miss significant time, Broncos thin at middle linebacker
Drew Sanders, the Broncos backup linebacker, injured a tendon on Saturday. That’s concerning because most people worry it’s the Achilles tendon, which would be season-ending.
Luckily, it was a tendon in his left foot.
“We don’t have any update,” Sean Payton said after practice on Saturday. “It’s not his Achilles, but I want to wait and see once the doctors do the MRI.”
Still, even while dodging the dreaded Achilles tendon injury, Drew Sanders will miss significant time going into the season.
That, per Ian Rapoport. The NFL Network insider said Sanders won’t be back to the team before the season kicks off, meaning he’ll miss the rest of training camp and preseason games.
It even sounds like he will miss some regular season games, and the full extent of the injury is still unknown. So, look for Payton to address that this afternoon post-practice.
Middle linebacker is a position that’s been revamped this year, with the addition of Dre Greenlaw and Alex Singleton coming back.
Greenlaw missed all of last year save two games as he was coming back from that dreaded Achilles tendon tear in Super Bowl LVIII. Singleton is making his comeback from an ACL tear sustained last year.
Sanders and Justin Strnad are the backups at the position, leaving them a bit thin as training camp is just getting underway.
Sean Payton’s calendar is load management for players
With so many players coming off considerable injuries, Sean Payton has put together a calendar to make sure he’s not overworking anyone.
“We’ll have–I don’t want to use the term load management–a calendar where these guys we look at age, we look at guys who are coming off injury last year, and then there’ll be a day or two where you see some of these guys you’re discussing may not be practicing and that’s just part of the calendar.”
Sure sounds a lot like load management.
Which is good coaching for December and January if the right balance is found.
Both of the aforementioned starting middle linebackers are still working their way back from injury. Not only that, every free agent acquisition the Broncos made this offseason is coming off a semi-serious-to-major injury.
Tight end Evan Engram tore a labrum in his shoulder and his injury is seemingly the least severe. Fellow offensive player and new running back J.K. Dobbins sprained an MCL and missed four games last year.
On defense, there’s Greenlaw and then his former 49ers teammate Talanoa Hufanga, the hybrid safety, who tore wrist ligaments last year. He played in only seven games for San Francisco.
Each one of those players are starters–outside of possibly Dobbins–so all of them will be vital to the Broncos hopes of getting back to the playoffs and winning once they’re in.
So that load management calendar–or whatever you want to call it–is smart planning now for those all-important months late in the season.
Denver can’t afford to have multiple starters go down with injuries in the preseason. Especially at middle linebacker, safety, or tight end, where they’re already thin. We’ll all see how the plan worked out for the team as training camp moves forward and preseason kicks off in 12 days.