Broncos will have their starting center back for AFC Championship Game

The Broncos have their offensive-line back together just in time for their first trip to the AFC Championship Game in a decade.

Center Luke Wattenberg, who received a contract extension from the team in late November, was activated from injured reserve Saturday after missing the last three games and four weeks of work “>due to a shoulder injury sustained in the Broncos’ Week 16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

KUSA-Ch. 9’s Mike Kils was first to report the move.

Wattenberg played all but four snaps of the Broncos’ first 15 regular-season games this season. He emerged as one of the NFL’s best centers in pass protection, allowing just one pressure every 49.3 pass-block snaps, per data compiled by Pro Football Focus. That pressure rate ranked fourth among 38 centers with at least 200 pass-block snaps this season through 15 games.

“Excited to have Luke back in the lineup at practice this week,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said Friday. “We’ll be ready to go.”

The corresponding move to create the 53-player roster spot involved placing quarterback Bo Nix on injured reserve.

BRONCOS STARTED ALEX FORSYTH FOR LAST THREE GAMES

Without Wattenberg, the team turned to third-year veteran Alex Forsyth, who also started four games during the 2024 campaign while Wattenberg was on injured reserve.

Forsyth suffered an ankle injury late in the divisional-round win over the Buffalo Bills, thrusting Sam Mustipher into the lineup for the final 16 snaps of the contest. The Broncos signed Mustipher last month in the wake of Wattenberg’s injury; he was part of the three-way center competition that Wattenberg won during 2024’s training camp.

“Al’s been part of the foundation and fabric of this offensive-line room that we’ve been building, so, we understand that no matter who goes down, [someone] has to step in, the same expectation is expected of you to perform and to know what’s going on and to play well,” Meinerz said.

“Sam spent a bunch of time here before. He knows what we’re about and what this room is about, and so, I didn’t flinch at all knowing Sam was coming in. He knows what this room is about, and it’s next man up, next person up.”

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