The Denver Broncos returned to practice on Wednesday ahead of their Sunday matchup with the Carolina Panthers.
What’s the update on the injury situation, and what happened? Let’s look.
Denver Broncos Wednesday practice report
Although the Denver Broncos are set to get back some key pieces, they still look the part of depleted roster, heavily marred by injuries.
Once again, K.J. Hamler and Jerry Jeudy didn’t practice, and their status for Sunday’s battle with the Carolina Panthers remains in doubt. Considering last week’s diagnosis for Jeudy was a ‘mild’ ankle injury, Broncos Country should remain somewhat optimistic about the team’s chances this week.
The Broncos also continue to be with Jonathan Harris on the defensive line and K’Waun Williams in the secondary. Williams might’ve been the most unheralded star of the first 10 weeks of Denver’s season, and the drop-off from him to Essang Bassey has been, and will continue to be, a steep one.
The big addition to the injury report on Wednesday, was Jacob Martin. According to head coach Nathaniel Hackett, Martin had a ‘knee thing’ flare up after Sunday’s game, and sat out practice, as the team cautiously monitored the situation.
They’ll need him on Sunday. It’s not coincidental that the defense has shown signs of slippage as attrition begins to set in and they lose more and more valued contributors by the day.
Denver Broncos Wednesday takeaways
The biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s press conferences was hearing about how the staff has adjusted to going from Coach Hackett to Klint Kubiak as the offensive play-caller.
“It’s been great,” Coach Hackett said of the adjustment, on Wednesday. “I was in special teams meetings. [I was] very heavily involved with the offense and being in the quarterback room as much as I can. But just being sure that I’m around to see more things. See how things are coached, see how things are executed out on the practice field to see if there’s something that I can catch, I can help correct, or just even how it’s taught, anything like that. So I think it’s been great up to this point.”
Hackett also discussed how his relationship with Kubiak has grown and changed over this season.
“The relationship is has been amazing,” Hackett told the media. “I mean, he’s done such a fine job, working as hard as he has, to do everything we can to win a football game. For me when he came here, you know, we were in the same division (NFC North), and so I got to see what he was doing, and how he was doing everything at [the] Minnesota Vikings. So I have tons of respect for him, being a coach’s kid. You know, I think that’s always something that’s a plus. And just as we’ve been here, getting to know him, being around him, watching his professionalism, his humor. Everything is is great.”
Sunday was arguably the Denver Broncos’ best offensive performance of the season, so hopefully Kubiak’s new position with the team continues to produce results.
