An hour before his first practice since Sept. 7, Broncos receiver had a guarantee when asked if he was going to be patient and pace himself.
“I’m going to try and do too much, honestly,” he said on Wednesday. “Thatap the way I am. Go out and go full speed. I’m just going to be so happy to be out there. They’ll probably have to calm me down.”
Patrick sustained a broken hand in the Week 1 loss at Oakland and was placed on injured reserve. Last week, general manager said Patrick would be one of the two players the Broncos are allowed to bring back from injured reserve.
Patrick said his target date is “definitely Minnesota” in Week 11.
The last two months have been frustrating for Patrick, who emerged last year as a reliable pass-catcher (23 catches for 315 yards) and special teams player (five tackles).
“Watching (stinks) because you always think you can do something to help your team win,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m a missing piece, but I know what I bring for this team and I feel I could have helped them in some type of way on offense or special teams or having energy on the sidelines.”
Patrick said he remained “engaged” with the offense by attending the position meetings, which gave him a better grasp of the playbook.
“You just get to learn the ins and outs,” he said. “It was not just looking at my position. I could look at the whole offense, what the linemen do and what the tight ends do. I think when I come back, the game will be a lot slower since I’ll know exactly what I’m doing and what everybody else is doing.”
Miller sits out. The Broncos listed a season-high 14 players on their injury list, headlined by outside linebacker , who sat out with a knee injury that isn’t expected to keep him out of Sunday’s game against Cleveland.
Not practicing: Miller, quarterback (neck), cornerback Bryce Callahan (foot), tight end (knee), right tackle Ja’Wuan James (knee), safety (hand) and linebackers (knee/hip) and (biceps).
Callahan, Flacco, Parks and Nelson won’t play; Nelson will be placed on injured reserve later this week.
Coach Vic Fangio said James “is 50-50” and Heuerman “maybe a little bit less than 50-50,” to play against Cleveland.
Allen takes over. Quarterback Brandon Allen had his first practice as the starter.
“Brandon is a very intelligent dude,” running back said. “I was very shocked and surprised when he first got here (on Sept. 1 with) how well he got the terminology so fast and how confident and calm he was.”
Receiver Courtland Sutton admitted he hasn’t had “too much work” with Allen, but will get three days of practice with him.
“Timing is the biggest key,” Sutton said. “(Flacco) and I have been working on timing since OTAs so thatap a lot of time to get a lot of reps. Itap a lot of stuff that Brandon and I and the rest of the receivers are going to have to learn with him at a really quick pace.”
Elway on Scangarello. During his weekly appearance on the Broncos’ radio partner (KOA), Elway voiced his support for offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello in the wake of Flacco’s post-game criticisms of the offense.
“Itap a learning process for Rich, too,” Elway said. “I have a great deal of respect for Rich, what he does, his knowledge of football, the system he’s running. He’s learning week in and week out. … I have a great relationship with Rich. He’ll continue to get better and hopefully, if we need to get more aggressive on the offensive side, we will.”
Footnotes. Because Flacco is out and Drew Lock isn’t practicing, the Broncos needed an extra arm during practice. Enter offensive quality control coach Rob Calabrese, who threw passes while Brandon Allen and Brett Rypien worked with Scangarello. … Flacco’s injury has shifted the point-spread from minus-1 for the Broncos to minus- 3 for Cleveland. Since the Browns returned to the NFL in 1999, it will be only the 13th time they are a road favorite. In Week 2, the Browns were a 6 1/2-point favorite at the Jets and won 23-3.
