Vance Joseph just revealed a harsh reality about Broncos' LB Dre Greenlaw

One of the big free agency moves that the Denver Broncos made this past offseason was signing Dre Greenlaw. The main issue with Greenlaw, though, has been injuries, and that has unfortunately been the case with the Broncos in his first season.

Greenlaw missed the first chunk of the season with a quad injury but has since been back and has played six games for the Broncos this year. He's not lit up the stat sheet, but he's excellent in the run and has intercepted a pass as well.

With the veteran linebacker seemingly fully healthy, or as healthy as a player can be this far into an NFL season, you would think that the Broncos would have unleashed him at this point, right? Well, Denver Broncos' defensive coordinator Vance Joseph revealed a harsh reality about Greenlaw, and maybe this is something that can change as the regular season finishes.

Vance Joseph reveals that Dre Greenlaw is still on a snap count

Vance Joseph told the media on Thursday that Greenlaw is still on a snap count:

Here are the snap counts and percentages of snaps on defense that Dre Greenlaw has played in his six games this year:

21 snaps (27.3%)
27 snaps (37%)
37 snaps (61.7%)
43 snaps (61.4%)
65 snaps (72.2%)
30 snaps (60%)

Greenlaw is playing at least 60% of the defensive snaps over the past four games, and I suppose the Broncos are still wanting to limit his snaps based on the opponent. In Week 14 versus the Las Vegas Raiders, the game was out of hand pretty quickly, so Greenlaw's snap count did drop from the previous week.

The Broncos knew this risk when they signed Greenlaw, but they have also been one of the healthiest teams in the league since the Sean Payton erahas began. It does seem like Denver has been very careful with injuries this year and have wanted to sort of 'save' players until the games get more important.

In the coming weeks as the regular season finishes, I would be shocked if Greenlaw's snap count didn't increase, as the Broncos have a very tough four-game stretch to end the season and will need their enforcer in the middle of the unit.

At some point, you'd love to see Greenlaw out there with no limitations, but the Denver Broncos clearly are not there yet with the 28-year-old linebacker who Denver signed from the San Francisco 49ers.