Broncos to 'Start' OLB Randy Gregory's 'Clock' on Return From IR
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Shuffling the pack due to injuries has become a matter of necessity for the Denver Broncos this season.
Heaven knows, the constantly revolving door to injured reserve has required extreme powers of concentration just to keep tabs on. Rush linebacker Jacob Martin is now done for the year, but explosive pass rusher Randy Gregory is set to hit the field again after a nine-week stretch on IR.
“We’re going to start Randy’s clock today. It’ll be exciting to have him back out there,” Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett said on Wednesday. “We’re looking forward to him hopefully playing on Sunday. We want him to be out there on Sunday. It’s hard to replace a guy like that. He’s a presence. How he attacks the edge, sets the edge, and rushes the passer—that’s something that we can really use.”
The Broncos will begin practicing Gregory. The team will have a few weeks to see how he looks in practice before deciding on whether to activate him on the 53-man roster. Barring that, he'd return to IR.
How Hackett and company have handled Gregory's recovery from knee surgery was mostly born out of a desperation to unleash him on opposing quarterbacks. Unfortunately, the Broncos' woeful slide out of contention has put an entirely different spin on the coaches' approach — as did the polarizing trade of Bradley Chubb.
So, with the Broncos now out of playoff contention, bringing the 30-year-old back at this juncture is bound to raise questions. On Wednesday, Hackett certainly didn't sound like a man who was entertaining the slightest notion of encasing an impact player in bubble wrap.
Hackett’s desire to get Gregory back this season is understandable, especially considering how losing key players has contributed so heavily towards him likely being a one-and-done head coach in Denver. While Hackett's enthusiasm to restore Gregory to the lineup is bound to be driven by his own self-preservation, safety Justin Simmons also went on record to say just how badly they have missed the pass rusher's elite intangibles.
“Just his all-around presence. I got to play with him in the Seattle game and then I had to miss, unfortunately," Simmons said on Wednesday. "Then when I was getting back, ‘RG’ missed some time. I’m excited to be able to play with him again. Just his presence alone—I like to call those types of guys, ‘game wreckers.’ Run game or pass game, he just goes in there and messes everything up... He’s a game wrecker.”
How the Broncos as an organization have weathered this unprecedented injury epidemic has drawn some serious column inches. It's a given that the Broncos' new ownership group will conduct its own detailed forensic inquest once the season finally concludes.
That makes Gregory's return somewhat of a risky proposition, especially should he go down injured again. Putting his availability for the 2023 season in jeopardy might be a gamble deemed worth taking by the current coaching staff, but perhaps less so for anxious fans and maybe even GM George Paton.
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