Three numbers to know for Broncos-Jaguars

It’s time to focus on injuries.

Some of it is bad luck. But the prevalence of injuries leads to questions.

And they’re being asked by George Paton.

“You got to look at the injuries, and we have to look more in-depth on the injuries,” the Broncos general manager told media Thursday. “It’s hard.

“I think the last six years, we’ve been one of the more injured teams. We’re looking into it. We looked into it the last offseason, and we need to continue to look at it.”

For now, we’ll look at the hard data.

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159

Man-games lost by Broncos first-teamers to injuries since Week 1 of the 2021 season. This includes the eight first-teamers who will not play Sunday:

• LS Jacob Bobenmoyer
• LT Garett Bolles
• Edge rusher Baron Browning (moved up to No. 1 unit due to injury)
• CB Ronald Darby
• OT Cam Fleming (also moved up due to injuries)
• Edge rusher Randy Gregory
• WR Tim Patrick
• RB Javonte Williams

On average, since the start of the 2021 campaign, the Broncos play without 6.4 starters per contest. (This doesn’t include games lost to COVID-19 reserve absences last year.) This season alone, the average is roughly in line with that two-year pace: 6.0 starters out due to injury per game. Believe it or not, that is a slight improvement over the 2021 average of 6.5 starters lost per game to injury.

So, that is 48 man-games lost by first-teamers this season alone for the Broncos.

Compare that with the Jaguars:

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10

That’s right. With guard Ben Bartch and cornerback Shaquill Griffin on injured reserve and out for Sunday, that will take the Jaguars’ season-long man-games lost total to 9 — 20.8 percent of the Broncos’ season-long total of 48 to date.

Jacksonville also has just four players on injured reserve. Only the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles (3) have fewer). Meanwhile, Caden Sterns became the 11th Bronco on the injured-reserve list Friday.

With Patrick, Bolles, Darby and Williams dealing with season-long injuries, and Bobenmoyer assured of missing at least one more game on injured reserve after this week, the Broncos are guaranteed to lose 85 man-games to injuries among their starters this year.

And that is if their first team incurs no further injuries.

Some injuries, you can’t do anything about. Ligaments get torn and ankles get fractured under awkward circumstances.

However, one injury that seems to be frequent this season is a concern, reflected in the next number:

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22

Man-games missed by Broncos players due to hamstring injuries this season. It will increase by at least one on Sunday, as special-teams ace Essang Bassey did not make the trans-Atlantic trip.

Safety P.J. Locke landed on the injury report Saturday due to a hamstring issue. He is questionable for Sunday. His injury comes at an unfortunate juncture, as he is projected to fill in for Sterns as the dime back. Sterns landed on injured reserve Friday due to a nagging hip injury.

Including Bassey, seven Broncos have missed games with hamstring injuries:

• Bassey (1 game missed)
• WR Tyrie Cleveland (3 games missed)
• Edge rusher Jonathon Cooper (4 games missed)
• TE Greg Dulcich (5 games missed)
• RG Quinn Meinerz (4 games missed)
• CB Darius Phillips (4 games missed)
• QB Russell Wilson (1 game missed)

Wilson had a Grade II hamstring strain, which involves a partial tear of the hamstring. The typical recovery time for that starts at three weeks. But he is expected to play Sunday, just 13 days after he suffered the injury.

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