New year. New training staff. Same old Denver Broncos, getting bitten up by the injury bug — its latest victim being inside linebacker Jonas Griffith, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL during Tuesday's training camp practice.
In addition to Griffith, the Broncos have also lost wide receiver Tim Patrick to a torn Achilles tendon, now-free-agent WR KJ Hamler to a heart issue, and rookie cornerback Riley Moss to core muscle surgery. All since camp began two weeks ago.
Which begs the obvious question: is Denver snakebitten? And head coach Sean Payton's resounding answer: no.
"I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary, honestly," Payton told reporters Thursday. "I can’t speak [about] the past, but in training camp, you get a few of these. Hopefully, you don’t get as many as other teams, but we look closely at everything we do leading up to the drills in practice. One was a fluke injury and the other happened on a special teams play where he stepped on a foot. So, no, I don’t.”
Unlike Payton, many in Broncos Country can speak of the past. Such as last season, when more than 20 players — including several starters — finished on injured reserve, resulting in the firing of longtime strength-and-conditioning coach Loren Landow.
The new regime replaced Landow with Dan Dalrymple, who worked under Payton in New Orleans, and tapped Beau Lowery as vice president of player health and performance. Those involved waxed particularly poetic about the latter hire.
“I think Beau is a gamechanger," Broncos general manager George Paton said in February. "Sean has been speaking about him since our first interview with Sean. Then you talk to the people at LSU, the people at the Saints, and he’s very progressive, data-oriented on the medical side. He’s going to bring it all together. He’ll be over the top. We have a lot of good people in our building. He’ll kind of bring everything together, strength and conditioning, in the training room, nutrition. He’s very humble, he has a great way about him. I think he’s going to be a gamechanger for us.”
To this point, with the exception of running back Javonte Williams' stunning return from multi-ligament knee surgery, not much has changed. The Broncos are down at least one starter and three key backups — and it's only Aug. 4.
Then again, as Payton intimated, injuries are an unfortunate part of the sport. It's the ultimate war of attrition and no team is going to win every battle. How said team rallies in the aftermath is what matters most.
Let's see the Broncos' response.
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