Denver Broncos starting center Lloyd Cushenberry injured his groin against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 30 last season.
After Cushenberry left the game, the Broncos moved Graham Glasgow from guard to center, and he anchored the offensive line for the rest of the season.
Two days after Cushenberry injured his groin, then-coach Nathaniel Hackett said the center would miss “a couple weeks.” One week later, Denver placed the third-year offensive lineman on injured reserve.
Players are eligible to return from IR after four weeks (if healthy), but teams are limited to just eight players who can return from IR during a season.
After the season ended and players were made available to media members in the locker room on Monday, Cushenberry told reporters that he is “100%” and could have returned to the field in November, but the team chose to keep him on IR.
Cushenberry said he was told the Broncos needed to bring back players at other positions from IR during the season.
Denver’s offensive line could see as many as three new starters added this offseason, and Cushenberry seems unlikely to regain the starting job this summer after essentially being benched while injured.
Cushenberry has one more year remaining on his contract (he’ll have a cap hit of $1.4 million in 2023), but if the Broncos bring him back, it will likely be in a backup role.
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