What Next For The Broncos?

So there I was, in rush hour traffic on I-95 heading home. As I do every day, I was streaming Mike and Scott on 104.3 The Fan in Denver on my smart phone. Then the story broke that made me ask, “What in the unholy Oakland can happen to our Broncos next?” It was reported the Demaryius Thomas tore his Achilles tendon during a workout in Georgia today. The Denver Post reports that Thomas is expected to miss 6-8 months.

The way I see it, this is more of an omen than a devastating injury to the Broncos as a whole. While Thomas showed signs of being a big play receiver in a couple of games last year, he missed six games due to injury. He was injured in the pre-season which cost him the Jacksonville game in week 1. He then missed 5 of the final 6 games and in week 16, he didn’t register a catch against San Diego.  So the great passing numbers put up by Kyle Orton last year were in large part due to Brandon Lloyd, Jabar Gaffney, and Eddie Royal (of course, he just had hip surgery so therein lies another question mark for 2011). If you factor in Eric Decker and Matthew Willis (once healthy), the Broncos are fairly deep at WR. That said, I would love to see Thomas take his time, rehab vigilantly, and come back only at 100%. That is the best way he can make a comeback and help the team.

If there is a silver lining to this injury, it is the timing of it. In the worst case scenario of the initial prognosis, DT could be back in the line-up by the beginning of October. The way the NFL labor negotiations are going he may not miss any regular season games at all. Let’s hope that is not the case though.

The other positive is that this injury happened now and not in training camp. This affords the Broncos’ front office the opportunity to compensate for his loss by either drafting a WR or seeking one out in free agency…contingent on the aforementioned labor negotiations.

No matter how the Broncos choose to deal with this set-back, one thing is for sure – all of us here in Broncos Nation wish Demaryius Thomas a speedy recovery. Many of us think that if he can stay healthy he can be an elite WR in this league.

 Get well soon DT!!

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