Denver Broncos rookie tight end Jeff Heuerman, a third round pick out of Ohio State, tore his ACL at minicamp practice on Saturday, and will reportedly miss the entire 2015 season.
Heuerman was working his way back to 100 percent after a foot injury derailed his senior season as a member of the Buckeyes, though he was still able to play. Tearing your ACL is never good, but with a foot injury, the time rehabbing and not aggravating the injury to his foot could perhaps help Heuerman in the long run.
Coming into the NFL, the 6-foot-5, 255 pound Heuerman looked a perfect fit for the Broncos’ offense as an in-line tight end, as well as a guy that could split out wide. He will now spend his rookie season with the team rehabbing, learning, and studying the nuances of the game.
“I feel terrible for Jeff and this is a very unfortunate situation,” Gary Kubiak said. “Jeff was going to be a big part of our team this year, and he’s still going to be a big part of our team and organization in the future.
“He’ll get well and be with us as part of this team throughout his rehabilitation.”
This is a really tough break for any player, but for the NFL, that’s two days in a row of minicamp activity where a player — rookie — has gone down with an ACL injury. The same injury was suffered by third overall pick Dante Fowler Jr., who went down on the first week of Jaguars minicamp.
I don’t know what these players are doing at this point with just helmets that’s able to cause an ACL injury, but perhaps extra precaution needs to be taken. Obviously you want to be able to run at full speed and do all the things you need to do to prepare for a season, but you can’t be having these kinds of headlines pop up.
Heuerman was a pick made more for the future than the present, it felt like, but Kubiak’s comments seem to indicate the opposite. The Broncos will use plenty of 2TE sets and now they have Owen Daniels, Virgil Green, James Casey, and youngsters Dominique Jones and Joe Don Duncan.
Case and Duncan are expected to also take reps at fullback/h-back with the team.
As funny as it might be, the Broncos are possibly not done adding tight ends this offseason.
We wish the best for Jeff and are rooting for a speedy recovery from this latest injury.