Broncos injury update: Jeudy feeling ‘pretty good,’ 10 players questionable
Sep 23, 2022, 3:07 PM
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — If Jerry Jeudy feels on Sunday the way he felt Friday, then he believes he’ll be ready to play for the Broncos when they face the San Francisco 49ers.
“I feel pretty good,” Jeudy said in the locker room Friday after practicing on a limited basis.
And if the game were Friday, Jeudy believes that “for sure” he’d be ready to go.
“He’s doing a good job. He’s doing everything he can,” Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett said. He added that the team will go “day by day” with Jeudy.
Jeudy added that he suffered a similar injury against Pittsburgh in 2020. When he had that injury, he saw a full practice of work the following Friday and he played two days later against Tampa Bay.
He added that he wasn’t worried about making the injury worse by playing.
But he isn’t sure whether he would wear any extra protection, such as a flak jacket.
“Depending how I feel,” he said. “How I’m feeling right now, I don’t really think so, but I’ll probably do something extra depending on the game-time decision if they let me play or not.”
Although the news was promising for Jeudy, the arrow could be pointing down for some others.
The injury report itself was downright Belichickian in its size.
Including Jeudy, 10 players are listed as questionable, including three players who suffered injuries in practice Thursday: defensive end Dre’Mont Jones (neck), edge rusher Jonathon Cooper (hamstring) and wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland (hamstring).
None of them practiced Friday.
The seven players listed as questionable who did practice Friday:
- Jeudy (limited, chest)
- ILB Josey Jewell (limited, calf/knee)
- RG Quinn Meinerz (limited, hamstring)
- RT Billy Turner (limited, knee)
- WR KJ Hamler (full practice, knee/hip)
- NT Mike Purcell (full practice, elbow)
- CB Pat Surtain II (full practice, shoulder).
Hamler, Surtain and Purcell upgraded from limited work Thursday to full work Friday, which augurs well for their availability.
Turner saw full work Wednesday, but only limited repetitions Thursday and Friday.
In total, a whopping 16 players landed on the Friday injury report. Only reserve cornerback Darius Phillips was ruled out for Sunday. He injured his hamstring last week against Houston.
Last year at this time, the Broncos had eight players on the injury report. Two years ago, they had 13. In 2019, they had eight. They also had eight players listed at this time in 2018.
“It happens a lot, talking to guys across the league,” Hackett said of the size of the Broncos’ injury complement this week.
“There’s all kinds of stuff going on. The idea is to continually keep them healthy, make sure they’re good to go.”
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