Two players who joined the Broncos in trades before the season are headed to the injured reserve.
After sustaining an ankle and knee injury, respectively, in Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Dan Gronkowski and Joe Mays are out for the remainder of the season.
Gronkowski, who had eight catches for 65 yards this season, suffered his injury in the second quarter but toughed it out to return to the game.
“He’s just a tough (player),” Head Coach Josh McDaniels said. “He (injured) it and then he went back in and taped it again at halftime. I love his toughness and we have a great deal of respect for what he tried to do yesterday, because he did not want to come out of the game. As a coach, you appreciate that a lot.”
While Gronkowski did not reinjure the ankle, the initial injury was severe enough to end his season.
McDaniels also discussed the loss of Mays, who has stepped in as a starter at middle linebacker in five of the previous six games, accumulating 40 tackles and a pass defensed this season.
“He’s definitely been a very valuable addition to our team — not only on defense, but his impact has been there all year in the kicking game,” the head coach said. “He’s a very unselfish guy who took his role and did the most with it. I think our team has a great deal of respect for his toughness and effort. He plays extremely hard and we’ll miss his impact here the last month of the season. (We’re) very grateful that we have him and that will continue to move forward with him.”
The team hasn’t made any decisions as for the roster moves to replace the injured veterans, but “there are some balls up in the air right now.”
Meanwhile, the team is hopeful that Andre’ Goodman and Darcel McBath will return for this Sunday’s game at Arizona. The status of Brian Dawkins and Demaryius Thomas is still uncertain.
Goodman’s return comes with Perrish Cox fresh off what McDaniels called “probably (his) best game of the season” against the Chiefs. Goodman, who started all 16 games in 2009 and four games this season, might be eased back into the cornerback position where Cox has started eight games in his stead.
“Any time a player is coming back from an injury and hasn’t practiced in a while, I think there is always a period there where you are going to see how quickly they work back in, what they can handle right away,” McDaniels said. “We will see as we go throughout the week and evaluate (Goodman) and see where he is at.”
‘GOOD EXPERIENCE’
Despite the Broncos being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the focus around Dove Valley is still on winning games — “one game at a time, four times.”
With that in mind, McDaniels addressed the idea of giving younger players more playing time simply to give them experience for next season.
“I think that good experience is always better than just experience,” McDaniels said. “I don’t think that just forcing experience on younger players because your record dictates that you can’t make the playoffs is necessarily a great formula to use.”
“I certainly don’t want to use these last four games to put players in there that aren’t ready to go.”
The head coach used Eric Decker as an example of a young player who has gotten better every week, worked hard to create a role for himself and has earned more playing time, hauling in three passes for 76 yards in the past two weeks. Rather than forcing the rookie into the lineup, Decker earned “good experience” on his own.
When asked more specifically about playing Tim Tebow, McDaniels cited Kyle Orton’s season — he ranks fourth in the league in passing yardage — and indicated that the transition from a little playing time to all of it could be even more difficult at the quarterback position.
“I think it’s a big discrepancy when you’re talking about any player that really hasn’t had a lot of reps during the course of the year,” McDaniels said, “then, all of a sudden you’re going to say, ‘Now you’re going to get all of them.’ That’s a tough transition for anybody to take.”
The head coach said the team will make decisions based on what is best for the team as it looks to win games to close the season.
“We’ll consider all things and if those things we think can help our football team be better down the stretch, then we’re going to do them — no matter what position it is, no matter who it is,” McDaniels said. “If we don’t think that, then we’ll make a different decision.”
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Andre' Goodman, Brian Dawkins, Dan Gronkowski, Darcel McBath, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Joe Mays, Perrish Cox, Tim Tebow
HolleyBronco is some upset about this!!
Don’t be surprised if Kubiak gets fired in houston. That he will be hired in Denver. DON”T BE SURPRISED!!!
I think HolleyBronco is McDs screen name lol
I’m still reading back about an hour ago so forgive me for not responding right away as I don’t want to miss a word.. I’ll be trying to catch up…
ILMSDB!!!!!!!!!!!
wow. guess i can say now i’m glad to see him go. one thing that i do not like is a dang cheater. plus this team was falling apart pretty quick last cupla weeks. i thought we were gonna be okay in the beginning of the year but it slowly occurred to me this team wasnt getting it done. i do like the idea of hiring jon gruden and when carolinas coach fox gets fired he can come in with gruden. those two together would be great. fox was a great d coordinator and runs the 3-4 gruden apparantly likes. as for mcd he just needs to go somewhere to coordinate an offense. thats what he is made for. love the idea of parcells running things, and i think he would be interested in an organization like the denver broncos. whatever happens i cant wait to see it. i cant figure out the interim coach decision, tho. eric studesville? really? oh well i liked mcd so i cant give opinions on coaches for 6 months. thats my self imposed suspension. starting now.
Fire me? I should get a promotion$$$
louisianabroncos what part of the boot are you in?
A super bowl winning coach has never went on to lead a new team to a superbowl victory.
Sometimes young, brilliant, coaches have to learn and develop through experience.
Sometimes the let go by 1 team and win a superbowl with their second game. ex. Gruden, Shanahan
Sometimes a coach is blessed by a patient owner. ex. Cowher
I prefer the character of Rooney to that of Davis.
HolleyBronco: why are you so upset that McD got fired? You talk about character, but what about McD’s character. The integrity of the franchise is in question because of the video tape scandal. The guy that taped the 49ers walk through is a personal friend of McD and was hired by McD. If McD is completely innocent, why didn’t he immediately report him? Like it or not, McD cannot blame anyone else but himself. Personally, I would rather be a proud fan knowing the team I cheer for has integrity rather than questioning if our team cheats.
My bad Carmelloo I got caught up in replying to my emails. Man this is a hot topic. Non the less on why I think Urban myeyer will succeed.
After playing as a defensive back for the University of Cincinnati, Meyer spent one season interning as a defensive back coach at Saint Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1985 under the mentorship of legendary St. X head coach Steve Rasso, where he met members of the Ohio State coaching staff. His first collegiate coaching position was a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at Ohio State. He then spent the next thirteen years as an assistant—two at Illinois State, six at Colorado State, and five at Notre Dame. In 1990, while still the linebacker coach at Illinois State, he called Toledo head coach Nick Saban to see if a position was available on his staff. Saban, however, never returned the call. In 2001, Meyer took his first head coaching job at Bowling Green. In his first season there, he engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in the NCAA football history, going 8–3 and capping off the season with a 56–21 victory over Bowling Green’s rival, the University of Toledo Rockets. He also earned Mid-American Conference coach of the year honors. The next year, Bowling Green finished with a 9–3 record. After a 17–6 overall record, Meyer left for the University of Utah
Meyer is widely considered one of the most accomplished practitioners of the spread offense. When Meyer got his first head coaching position at Bowling Green, he took trips to visit John L. Smith and Scott Linehan at Louisville, Randy Walker and Kevin Wilson at Northwestern, Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Joe Tiller and Jim Chaney at Purdue, and Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, all of whom ran some version of the spread offense
Urban Meyer’s teams at Bowling Green, Utah, and now Florida have all run the spread, chiefly utilizing a run-first variation most similar to Rich Rodriguez’s formerly at West Virginia with tweaks to fit the offensive personnel (for example, Meyer’s first two years at Florida skewed toward a drop-back passing attack led by Chris Leak, while Alex Smith and Tim Tebow led an option run-based spread). Using this offense, he has won two BCS titles, has become the first coach to lead a non-BCS conference team (Utah) to a BCS bowl, has coached a Heisman trophy winner. ( you know who) lol
I can’t believe how much McDick did to ruin a pretty good team in less than two years!!! I feel bad for everyone especially the fans.
Shanahan’s final draft few darfts were awesome and almost all of that talent is gone now:
Cutler
Marshall
Hillis
and the list goes on and on . . .!
Where do we go now???
I can recommend getting an “old ball coach” like the likes of “BILL COWER” or perhaps a “TONY DUNGEE”!!!
We need to get back to greatness and we can’t aford to spin our wheels any longer.
We have Dummerville coming back and we had some good people in skill positions. Along with a great O-line if they can play with each other for another year.
We do however, need DEFENSIVE HELP!!!
Go out and get “Hainesworth” and play the 3-4 with him. That’s all he wants is a 3-4 and he’ll quit acting like a baby!!!
And then get “Cower” and he’ll squeeze every drop of talent out of these player.
Trade “Daniel Graham” (and his stupidly huge contract he’s not worth it)
Trade “Brady Quinn” because he has value.
Trade “Tim Tebow” – were fine with Orton.
Pick up a STUD at Fullback like former players like “Alstot”, “Rathman” and the likes
Get a “Shanon Sharpe” type of Tight End that can catch the damn ball and creates match-up problem.
Were fine at wide receiver – keep the ones we have minus maybe one.
And focus on the DEFENSE FRONT 7!!!
We need more SERIOUS BALLERS and defensive stand-outs!!!
BUT IT ALL STARTS with the RIGHT COACH AND THE RIGHT PLAN AND THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
WE can’t afford to be wrong again!!!
GO BRONCOS = I’ll always bleed BLUE AND ORANGE!!!
Man I wish we could have our team back of two years ago!!!
“Trade “Tim Tebow” – were fine with Orton.”
“fine” in the NFL doesn’t win division championships and Super Bowls. Orton has continued the same mistakes he made in Chicago.
NO TO JON GRUDEN AS A POSSIBLE COACH! he took the raiders to a super bowl and won it. i don’t like that. and his commentary on MNF are crappy.