The Denver Broncos’ roster is being completely ravaged by COVID, and thus the team could look unrecognizable against the Chargers.
Even if the Denver Broncos are not going to make the playoffs in 2021, at least fans have a strong roster to be excited about for the future.
Unfortunately, because the team is currently being ravaged by positive COVID tests, the Broncos will be borderline unrecognizable on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Hopefully, you can keep a roster handy while watching the game.
Broncos roster will need major reinforcements vs. Chargers
The Denver Broncos’ number of players going on the COVID/reserve list is reaching outrageous status. Over the last few days, the team has added more than a dozen players who will be unavailable on Sunday against the Chargers, should the game remain as scheduled.
And there are still two more days of testing to get through before gameday.
Against the Chargers, the Broncos will be without a lot of guys on both sides of the ball, whether they will be missing the game for COVID reasons or otherwise. Let’s take a quick look:
QB: Teddy Bridgewater (concussion)
WR: Tim Patrick, Jerry Jeudy, Tyrie Cleveland (COVID)
OL: Calvin Anderson, Bobby Massie, Drew Himmelman (COVID)
DL: Mike Purcell, Jonathan Harris (COVID)
EDGE: Bradley Chubb, Stephen Weatherly, Jonathon Cooper, Andre Mintze (COVID)
LB: Barrington Wade (COVID)
CB: Bryce Callahan, Mike Ford (COVID)
S: Caden Sterns (COVID)
Obviously, not all of those players are on the 53-man roster, but some of them are certainly players that would have been asked to step up given the players ahead of them on the roster are being forced to miss this game.
There are a couple of players on that list whose positive tests were early enough in the week that they might be able to come off of the list. Specifically, Mike Purcell and Andre Mintze are eligible to come off, but as this article is being written, head coach Vic Fangio said there’s a chance that Courtland Sutton will also be going on the COVID/reserve list, which once again would reinforce that this roster will be bordering on unrecognizable for this game.
Fangio, at his press conference on Friday, actually couldn’t even say with any certainty that the Broncos would have 45 players available for Sunday’s game against the Chargers.
So it goes.
The NFL’s policies regarding COVID have considerably changed since a year ago, but they are still such that any positive test results in five mandatory days away from the team.
As the news continues to roll in, we’ll have a much more accurate guess as to what the lineup will look like for the Broncos on both sides of the ball, but as of Friday, it could look something like this:
QB: Drew Lock
RB: Javonte Williams, Melvin Gordon
WR: Kendall Hinton, Seth Williams, Diontae Spencer
TE: Noah Fant, Albert Okwuegbunam
LT: Garett Bolles
LG: Dalton Risner
C: Lloyd Cushenberry
RG: Quinn Meinerz
RT: Cameron Fleming
EDGE: Malik Reed
EDGE: Andre Mintze, Aaron Patrick
DL: Shelby Harris, McTelvin Agim
NT: Mike Purcell, Justin Hamilton
DL: Dre’Mont Jones, Shamar Stephen
ILB: Baron Browning
ILB: Jonas Griffith
CB: Patrick Surtain
CB: Ronald Darby
Nickel: Kyle Fuller
Dime: Nate Hairston
S: Justin Simmons
S: Kareem Jackson
When you put it all down on paper, it doesn’t seem like the Broncos are missing much outside of wide receiver and edge. General manager George Paton has done an outstanding job of filling out this roster and making sure there is depth, even 17 weeks into the season.
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The Denver Broncos are loaded with 2022 NFL Draft capital and they can solidify one of the top rosters in the NFL next season with a strong class.
With that being said, you might need a roster handy to know who is catching passes from Drew Lock in this game, and who might be rushing Justin Herbert.