Fangio Doesn't Sound Optimistic Broncos' No. 1 CB A.J. Bouye Will be Ready for Week 5
The Denver Broncos have been inordinately struck by the injury bug this season. Coming out of each of the team's four games thus far, there's been at least one serious injury to a key player.
Most of those serious injuries have resulted in the player landing on injured reserve but in the case of Week 4, the injury to tight end Noah Fant is mercifully short-term. Fant's injury is "week-to-week" with an ankle sprain.
One of those IR players was No. 1 cornerback A.J. Bouye, who suffered a separated shoulder in his Broncos debut vs. the Tennessee Titans in Week 1. With the new IR rules mandating that injured players miss three games before teams can activate them back to the 53-man roster, technically, Bouye is eligible to return in Week 5 for Denver's trip to Foxboro to take on the New England Patriots.
Interpreting the tonality and buzz on Bouye's injury initially, he was only expected to miss "a few weeks", which would ostensibly still put him back in the saddle for the Patriots game but head coach Vic Fangio threw cold water on that notion during his Friday presser.
After giving starting quarterback Drew Lock a "50-50" chance of returning for Week 5, Fangio wasn't willing to render the same even odds for Bouye.
"I’m probably not as optimistic with A.J. Bouye as I am with Drew, so he’s less than 50/50," Fangio said.
Bouye is an eighth-year veteran whom the Broncos acquired via trade from Jacksonville earlier this year, giving up a fourth-round draft pick to the Jaguars in exchange. At 6-feet tall and 191 pounds, Bouye brings good size and length and a feisty, physical presence to the boundary.
After picking off a career-high six passes in 2017 with the Jags, Bouye earned his one and only Pro Bowl nod. 2018 was solid but he's coming off a less-than-stellar 2019 campaign in which his floundering team asked him to carry the load as the No. 1 corner after dealing away Jalen Ramsey. He's also battled injuries the last few years of his career.
However, Fangio had long coveted Bouye as the quintessential fit for his zone-based coverage schemes and pounced at the chance to land him when the Jags made him available. Bouye's Broncos tenure got off to an encouraging start as he notched a pass break-up in Week 1 vs. Tennessee but that shoulder separation ended his game quickly.
The Broncos have struggled to get by without him with Bryce Callahan being asked to play the boundary as the team's de facto top corner. Fangio has chosen to rely on two rookies — Michael Ojemudia and Essang Bassey — to bridge the gap in Bouye's absence, despite the veteran De'Vante Bausby waiting in the wings.
Fangio finally turned to Bausby in Week 4's win over the New York Jets, and it paid dividends as he broke up three Sam Darnold passes, one of which saved what was sure to be a second-quarter touchdown. If Fangio realized the error of his ways and plans to play Bausby on the boundary in Week 5, with Callahan in the slot and Ojemudia opposite him on the outside, the Broncos can probably weather the storm of one more game without Bouye.
The sooner the Broncos get Bouye back, the sooner the secondary can embody the vision Fangio originally had for it before the injury bug took a bite out of the unit. With a 10-day gap in between Week 4 and Week 5 for Denver, there's still the distinct possibility Bouye could return for the next game.
But if he doesn't practice next Tuesday or Wednesday, that'll tell fans everything they need to know about Bouye's availability for Week 5's tilt at the Patriots. For Fangio, if a player coming off injury is unable to practice in the week's lead-up to gameday, he'll err on the side of caution.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
