3 players the Denver Broncos cannot afford to lose the rest of 2022

The 2022 NFL season is just one month old but heading into Week 5, the Denver Broncos have already suffered some key losses on their roster. Some injuries are going to take longer to heal than others, but regardless of the length of time, the Broncos have already had to deal with losing players like Tim Patrick, Justin Simmons, Javonte Williams, Randy Gregory, Greg Dulcich, Josey Jewell, Quinn Meinerz, and Billy Turner, among others. Injuries are brutal every year in the NFL and the Broncos have been bitten hard in recent years.

Although this team has largely subscribed to the “next man up” philosophy when it comes to replacing these injured players, there are some areas on the current Denver Broncos roster that cannot be helped with whatever depth the team has. There are certain players this team cannot afford to lose for the remainder of 2022 in its current state.

Let’s take a look at three of them.

No. 1 player the Denver Broncos can’t lose: Russell Wilson, QB

I think this really goes without saying, but we need to say it anyway. The Denver Broncos can’t live without Russell Wilson at this particular point in time. With all due respect to Brett Rypien, I’m not sure the Broncos are equipped for a Cooper Rush-like run in the event Russell Wilson has to miss any sort of time due to injury.

Perhaps we’re underrating Rypien a bit there, but I think this is perhaps the most obvious player you could point to when you talk about guys the Broncos can’t afford to live without. Has the offense had its share of struggles in the first four games? Absolutely, but Russell Wilson hasn’t really been the problem. He’s also not exempt from blame, but he’s the most valuable player on the Denver Broncos’ offense by far.

The team would absolutely not be able to sustain losing him even though we did see some nice progression from Brett Rypien in the preseason.