The Denver Broncos are heading into their matchup on Monday night against the Cleveland Browns pretty much at full strength. At least, they are about as full strength as you can expect a team to be this time of year.
The Broncos won't have starting cornerback Riley Moss against the Browns, but they are healthy going into this game for the vast majority of the roster. That would presumably extend to wide receiver Josh Reynolds, a key free agent pickup in the 2024 offseason for Denver who has been sidelined for quite some time now with a hand injury.
Reynolds has been practicing in full for the last three weeks, and the Broncos are on the clock as far as reinstating him to the roster, officially. Reynolds will reportedly not be activated for Monday night's game against the Browns despite practicing in full all week this week.
Per source, Broncos are not activating WR Josh Reynolds for tonight’s game. He’s been downgraded from questionable to OUT. He’ll stay on IR with deadline to activate on Wednesday. #9sports
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) December 2, 2024
Broncos not bringing Josh Reynolds off of IR for Week 13
With Reynolds officially not playing for the Broncos against the Browns, that continues to clear up snaps for young players at the wide receiver position. We've been seeing a lot more of Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, and especially Devaughn Vele over the last month as the Broncos look to secure a playoff spot in the AFC.
The wide receiver position has desperately needed a jolt, and that jolt has come from within. Reynolds suffered a hand injury against the Las Vegas Raiders earlier this season and while he was on injured reserve, he was the victim of a shooting incident in Denver. Reynolds is okay, obviously, and as I mentioned -- he's been practicing in full for three weeks.
According to sources, Reynolds has looked good at the practice portions available to the media, so there doesn't appear to be any issue of health here. It may just be the Broncos being precautionary, working him back into the mix slowly, and making sure they're being smart with their in-season roster construction.
The conversation changes after the Monday night matchup against Cleveland, where a decision on Reynolds will have to be made shortly thereafter. As Mike Klis reported, a decision must be made on Reynolds by Wednesday from the Broncos that decision is simple: Reynolds is either reinstated to the 53-man roster or the Broncos have to leave him on injured reserve the rest of the year.
Reynolds missing the game against Cleveland is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but to sideline him for the duration of this season -- assuming he's healthy -- would be weird. The Broncos need all the help they can get at receiver and let's say this team does end up making a playoff push. What happens if (knock on wood) anything would happen to any of their receivers during that playoff push and the team had put Reynolds on IR?
I'm guessing we'll see the Broncos activate Reynolds at the deadline, but the fact that he's not playing against Cleveland has given me pause about making any assumptions. It would be ideal to see Reynolds back in the fold sooner rather than later. The Broncos will have just four games remaining after this Monday night matchup, and hopefully at least one playoff game after that.
Reynolds could be valuable to them for that stretch.