Denver Broncos: Bryce Callahan likely heading to IR after testing foot
The Denver Broncos are facing the unfortunate reality that Bryce Callahan will need to be shut down for the 2019 season, according to head coach Vic Fangio.
The Denver Broncos and cornerback Bryce Callahan have been holding out hope that the big free agent pickup could return at some point this regular season despite re-injuring his foot in training camp.
It appears increasingly unlikely that we will see him in a Broncos uniform on gameday this season, and head coach Vic Fangio confirmed that on Thursday.
Fangio told the media that it’s looking more and more like Callahan will head to injured reserve after he came out to practice on Tuesday and tried to test out his foot. He came away from the practice session sore and with some roster spots needed to activate Tim Patrick and Drew Lock in the coming days/weeks, it’s likely we’ll see Callahan head to IR soon.
Fangio: Heuerman and James were “just so-so” and are under 50 percent to play Sunday. Callahan won’t practice today and could go to IR to make room for Tim Patrick.
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) November 14, 2019
It was exciting to see Callahan try to come back to practice after the bye week when he’d spent six weeks getting himself back from a stem cell treatment, but the non-surgical treatment apparently didn’t work.
The Broncos now need to get Callahan on track to contribute as soon as he possibly can in 2020, and if that involves surgery, so be it.
There’s a chance Denver will lose Chris Harris Jr. in free agency in 2020, so Callahan’s presence on the roster — and general health — is all the more important.
Although it’s easy to write this move off as just signing a guy who is too injury-prone because Callahan re-injured his foot during training camp, it should be noted that Callahan had recovered from the initial injury and was making big plays at Broncos camp prior to someone stepping on it and re-aggravating it.
Hopefully surgery or whatever he needs done medically will take care of it, and he will be back out there making plays on the ball sooner rather than later.
Next. Broncos mock draft having fun with a ton of picks. dark
After this season, Callahan has two years on his contract with the Broncos. He originally signed a three-year contract with $10 million in guaranteed money, $6.5 million of which was guaranteed at signing ($2.5 million base salary in 2019, $4 million prorated signing bonus).
Callahan carries a cap hit of $8.333 million in 2019 with a dead cap figure of $2.666 million.