Getty Broncos WRs K.J. Hamler and Jerry Jeudy celebrate after a Hamler touchdown.
With a struggling offense, the Denver Broncos are going to be without their fastest wide receiver for at least another four weeks.
The Broncos announced that they have placed wide receiver K.J. Hamler on injured reserve.
Hamler is suffering from a hamstring injury that he suffered back in November during practice. The third-year wide receiver has not played in a game since the Broncos pulled off a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London in Week 8.
During this week in practice, head coach Nathaniel Hackett mentioned that Hamler did have a setback.
Hamler is the 15th player on injured reserve for Denver. The Broncos now have both, the most players on injured reserve and the most salary cap space on injured reserve of any team in the NFL.
The former second-round pick appeared in just seven games this season, but has caught just seven passes for 165 yards. Hamler has not scored a touchdown since Week 13 of the 2020 season. The speedy wide receiver only has a total of three touchdowns in his career and they all occurred during his rookie season.
Due to Hamler dealing with so many injuries in his young career so far, Hamler will now miss a total of 24 games in his career out of a possible 50 if he returns from injured reserve after four weeks.
After failing to catch more than 30 passes and go for over 400 yards receiving in a season, Hamler has been a disappointment during his time with the Broncos.
Jeudy Could Return
The Broncos could be getting back a big piece to their receiving core with wide receiver Jerry Jeudy.
After suffering an ankle injury against the Tennessee Titans in Week 10, Jeudy returned to practice this week on limited basis.
“He’ll be a game-time decision,” Hackett said yesterday. “We’re still not 100 percent if he’s going to go, so he’s just questionable. But it was good to have him out there for a little bit.”
Hackett also mentioned that Jeudy did participate in team drills on Friday as the team prepared to travel to Baltimore to take on the Ravens.
In the nine games that Jeudy has appeared in, the former first-round pick has caught 30 passes for 449 yards. Jeudy has found the endzone just three times this season, but he leads the team in receiving touchdowns. There are five more players on the team with just one receiving touchdown.
The Broncos announced that they have promoted wide receiver Brandon Johnson back to the active roster for his third game of the season. Johnson did catch his first ever touchdown pass last week against the Carolina Panthers as Denver lost 23-10.
If Juedy can’t pass his pregame workout, Denver will have depth at the wide receiver position, but with the worst scoring offense in the NFL, they need all the help they can get.
Need to get Sutton Involved
While the Broncos own the worst offense in the NFL, the Broncos understand that they need their playmakers to help out quarterback Russell Wilson and that starts with getting wide receiver Courtland Sutton more involved.
“He definitely gets a lot of attention. He’s a guy that everybody that were gonna face knows that we want to try and get him involved as much as we can throughout the entire game,” Hackett said when talking about Sutton. “We have to try to be as creative as we possibly can to try and get him [Sutton] the ball.
Sutton leads the team in receptions (52) and yards (688), but hasn’t performed like a true No. 1 receiver as of late.
The former second-round pick hasn’t had a 100-yard game since Week 2 against the Houston Texans.
So far this season, Sutton has seven drops which matches his career high in a season dating back to his rookie season in 2018.
Sutton is on pace to barely surpass 1,000 receiving yards for the second time in his career, but he also needs to find the endzone for the struggling Denver offense. Scoring just one touchdown this season, Sutton needs to elevate his game a become a serious threat in the redzone for the Broncos.
Traveling to take on the Ravens, Denver’s passing game could finally find some light. Baltimore’s defense gives up an average of 253.8 yards through the air which ranks 27th in the NFL. Last week, the Ravens secondary gave up 321 yards to Trevor Lawrence along with three touchdown passes.
Maybe this is the game that Wilson and the Denver offense can show some hope in the passing game against the Ravens.