Perhaps the biggest surprise to the Broncos this past week wasn’t about Tom Brady or deflated footballs.
It was the loss of third-round pick Jeff Heuerman, who tore his left anterior cruciate ligament during rookie camp and likely will miss the 2015 season.
“I wish that was me,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said Tuesday, after the John Lynch Foundation’s Annual Salute the Stars luncheon at Sports Authority Field. “It was such an unfortunate situation to just be running down the field and (have) that happen. We are going to miss him. He’s still going to be a big part of what we are doing. He’s a great kid. He has his priotities in line. He’s going to be in the meetings, part of the team, he’s going to help us coach the tight ends and he’ll have a great career here.”
The injury to Heuerman, as well as Jaguars rookie Dante Fowler Jr., who tore his ACL during camp, has raised questions about teams’ practices and whether they should scale back the intensity to try to prevent such injuries.
Kubiak and Broncos general manager John Elway, however, said little could have been done to prevent Heuerman’s non-contact injury.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Elway said. “It’s something you really can’t control. We try to do everything we can to control it, but ultimately we can’t.”
Still no DT deal. Elway said there was no update on the contract negotiations with wide receiver Demaryius Thomas.
“We want Demaryius back, and we’re going to do everything to make that happen,” Elway said.
Nicki Jhabvala, The Denver Post
