Denver Broncos: Which players should come off IR when healthy?

The Denver Broncos have a few players who will be eligible to come off of IR in a few weeks. Which two should be brought back?

Next Monday, as the Denver Broncos begin preparing for the Kansas City Chiefs on a short week, a number of players will be eligible to practice for the first time since they suffered injuries and were placed on injured reserve before the first game of the 2019 season.

Although the Broncos currently have 11 players on injured reserve, only three players who were placed on IR ahead of week one have the chance to practice starting Monday. Those three players are quarterback Drew Lock, running back Theo Riddick, and tight end Jake Butt.

A fourth player, wide receiver Tim Patrick, was placed on injured reserve ahead of week two and will be eligible to return to practice after week nine.

Although NFL rules are currently better than what they used to be, the Broncos are still only allowed to bring two players off of injured reserve.

In order to be brought back from injured reserve, the player must have, at one point, been on the active 53-man roster. This is why we saw the Broncos wait 24 hours to put players like Lock, Butt, and Riddick on IR at the start of the season.

Another nice thing for the Broncos (and the purposes of this post) is that they don’t have to specifically designate any players to return. They can choose any two who fit the criteria to come off.

With all of that being said, the Broncos have the chance to bring two out of these four players back from IR this season:

• QB Drew Lock
• RB Theo Riddick
• TE Jake Butt
• WR Tim Patrick (after week 11)

I want to lay out a case for (or against) all of these players coming back from IR. How much of a difference could they make? How much of this plays into evaluating for the future?

Ultimately, which of these players help the Broncos the most? Or are they all luxuries at this point?

Let’s take a look.