Elway Hints at One Player Broncos Plan on Activating Off Injured Reserve

The Mile High City is still reeling from the aftershocks of the Emmanuel Sanders trade, which the Denver Broncos consummated with the San Francisco 49ers on Tuesday afternoon.

But you know what they say. In the NFL, the show must go on.

One of the most pressing questions on the minds of Broncos fans remains which two players the team will activate from the injured reserve list. The Broncos have a quartet of candidates — QB Drew Lock (thumb), TE Jake Butt (knee), RB Theo Riddick (shoulder) and WR Tim Patrick (hand).

The Broncos can designate two players, none more, to return off of injured reserve in-season, if the player made the opening week 53-man roster.

On Tuesday, in a conference call following the Sanders trade, GM John Elway more-than-hinted at the team's plan for at least one of those two designations. Elway's Freudian slip, ironically, wasn't in response to a direct question about IR players, but rather, who the Broncos envision stepping up to fill the vacuum created by Sanders' departure.

“DaeSean [Hamilton] has got to step up," Elway said. "Then we have some young guys that have to step up. [WR] Tim Patrick, obviously it’s a little bit early, but Tim Patrick will be back after the bye. We’re looking forward to him coming back."

Alrighty then.

It makes sense that in the wake of the Sanders trade, the Broncos feel a bit more pressure to get Patrick out onto the field. He's coming off a solid first year in Denver in which he hauled in 23 receptions for 315 yards and a touchdown, as the third and fourth wideout onto the field.

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Patrick suffered a broken hand in the Broncos' Week 1 loss to the Oakland Raiders and was promptly placed on IR. Rookie QB Drew Lock was placed on IR after making the Broncos' initial 53-man roster, about three weeks after he had suffered a severely sprained thumb on his throwing hand in a preseason game.

As a 2019 second-round pick, you would think that the Broncos would be more-than-excited to get Lock back on the field as soon as is humanly possible. And yet, Elway has been cagey about the prospect of Lock returning to the field this year.

Meanwhile, Joe Flacco has floundered as the starting QB, leading the Broncos to a 2-5 start. Fans are up in arms about the team's decision to A.) give up a fourth-round pick to acquire Flacco via trade from Baltimore and to B.) extend Flacco's albatross of a contract an additional two years on the doorstep of the regular season, which freed up about $12 million in cap space.

The natives are restless, after seeing how bad Flacco has been. Not only have the Broncos lost five of their first seven games, but with Flacco under center, the offense has converted just 6-of-38 third-down tries over the last three games combined. Adding insult to injury, the Broncos' debacle of a loss to Kansas City last week, in which the offense produced just six points (to the Chiefs' 30), represented the lowest scoring output in the history of the team's 71 home primetime games.

And still, Elway drags his feet on the Drew Lock issue. And it's not as if Lock's training camp and preseason body of work was cause for concern. He easily out-dueled the likes of Kevin Hogan and Brett Rypien and was on his way to absolutely cementing the QB2 job behind Flacco. Lock showcased his talent and was building up momentum when he suffered that fluke thumb injury vs. Seattle in the third preseason game.

Asked point-blank whether the Broncos had made a decision on which players to activate off IR, Elway again gave a non-answer, perhaps not realizing he'd already unwittingly revealed the team's intention to bring Tim Patrick back.

“Not yet," Elway said. "We’re still talking about it.”

If the Broncos don't bring Lock back to the roster, the pressure on this front office will only intensify. Lock revealed on October 5 that he no longer feels pain when gripping or throwing a football.

For those keeping track, Drew Lock did not practice with the team on Tuesday, nor did any other IR player eligible to return to the field. We'll see if that changes on Wednesday, as the Broncos get in their preparation for Week 8, in which they'll take to the road to play the Indianapolis Colts.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.