Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Broncos Claim C Patrick Morris Off Waivers, Place Wolfe on IR
It's no fun to see Derek Wolfe's season come to an end prematurely, especially as he's been in the midst of a career year. Vic Fangio's scheme was the perfect defense for Wolfe as he tallied seven sacks on the season — a career-best.
After suffering a dislocated elbow in the Broncos' 23-20 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, the team announced that Wolfe has been placed on injured reserve.
To fill his roster spot, the Broncos put a waiver claim in on center Patrick Morris and were awarded him on Tuesday. Morris went undrafted out of TCU last year, signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers whose practice squad he spent his entire rookie season on.
The experience gave Morris an opportunity to learn at the feet of then-Steelers O-Line Coach Mike Munchak. When the opportunity arose to bring Morris to Denver to reunite him with Munchak, the Broncos took it.
In 2019, the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Morris managed to spend a couple of games on Pittsburgh's active gameday roster after initially being on the practice squad for the majority of the season. Pittsburgh risked him to waivers, perhaps hoping to sneak him back down to the practice squad and that's where the Broncos enter the picture.
Connor McGovern is the starting center in Denver but he's in a contract year, so it behooves the Broncos to cultivate additional options should things not work out in free agency.
The Broncos also re-signed rookie QB Brett Rypien to the practice squad after he passed through NFL waivers unclaimed.
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