Broncos veteran linebacker Dre Greenlaw was a known scratch to open up the season as he dealt with a quad issue, but with Week 3 about to be played out, Greenlaw is still nowhere close to coming back. Denver had been hoping to avoid placing Greenlaw on any injured lists, but it was forced to bite the bullet today and make the decision to land Greenlaw on injured reserve.
The quad issue came about five months ago and has continued to limit the team’s offseason addition. Per Mike Klis of 9NEWS, the new target date for Greenlaw’s return is a Week 7 matchup against the Giants in mid-October. It’s hard to say if he would’ve had to sit out that long regardless of when he was placed on an injured list, but by not placing him on IR sooner, the Broncos have ensured that Greenlaw will now miss almost half of the regular season.
Practice squad linebacker Garret Wallow will help provide some depth at the position as a standard gameday practice squad elevation for the second week in a row. Fullback Adam Prentice will also be elevated from the practice squad again.
This is actually Prentice’s third time getting called up as an elevation. Because of the three-game limit for practice squad elevations, if Denver would like to see Prentice in any more games after this, they’ll need to sign him to the active roster. After doing so, they can cut him after the game and re-sign him back to the practice squad, at which point he would be eligible for three new elevations.