When the Denver Broncos placed linebacker Alex Singleton on injured reserve with a torn ACL on Wednesday, they lost more than just a starter on defense.
Denver lost a team captain and the “green dot” play-caller on defense. It won’t be easy to replace Singleton.
“That one’s tough,” quarterback Bo Nix said. “Really tough. Alex is a great teammate. Alex is a great football player. He does a lot on the field for us. He’s one of those guys that when he’s on the field, everybody feels a lot better. It’s going to be tough.”
So, who’s going to start in Singleton’s place against the New York Jets in Week 4? Broncos coach Sean Payton has no desire to reveal his specific plans.
“Look, we’ve got a lot of options,” Payton said. “I’m not going to cover them, but we’ve got a handful of guys. We’ve got probably two or three different directions we’ll go and then we’ll just see how it goes.”
Cody Barton played 31 snaps against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Justin Strnad and Kristian Welch played exclusively on special teams in Week 3, but one of them could be asked to start against the Jets.
“You can’t replace a guy like Alex, but I think you can rise up around him and help that loss out a little bit,” Nix said. “[I’m] definitely pulling for him with his recovery. We hope he has a great offseason and gets ready to go again. [It’s a] huge loss for us, but we’re going to continue to get better around him and make sure that we have what it takes on defense. Then offensively, we always just have to raise up our game and play better.”
The Broncos already had rookie Levelle Bailey on their practice squad and they added more depth on Wednesday by signing Kwon Alexander and Zach Cunningham to the practice squad. NFL teams can elevate two players from the practice squad to the game-day roster each week, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Denver call up at least one LB this weekend.
“It’s a tough blow and a tough loss,” cornerback Pat Surtain said of losing Singleton. “Honestly he’s a key leader to our team. Losing a guy like that is pretty hard. Obviously everybody is rallying behind him. Our prayers are up to him. [We’re] wishing him a speedy recovery.
“He’ll be around helping the linebackers out. We’re going to miss him out there on the field, but it’s the next man up. It’s the next opportunity for other guys to step in and step up. I wish him nothing but the best on his recovery process.”
Whether it’s Strnad, Welch, Bailey, Alexander, Cunningham or some combination of all of them, the Broncos will need “the next man up” to fill some big shoes the rest of the season. Denver is also hopeful that Drew Sanders (Achilles) could return later this season, but that might be weeks or even months away from coming into play.
In the meantime, Strnad and Welch are likely the top contenders to start next to Barton in Week 4. It might take more than one game to sort out Singleton’s season-long replacement, but we’ll get our first look at the defense without the linebacker on Sunday afternoon.
