Broncos: Osweiler gets another shot at starting job Sunday against the Patriots.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Jake Butt won’t be rescuing the Denver Broncos’ faltering offense, at least not this season.
The rookie tight end is headed to injured reserve along with quarterback Chad Kelly, the seventh-round draft pick from Mississippi who is still working his way back from knee and wrist surgeries.
“Chad Kelly came back to practice last week and numberswise it doesn’t make sense for our football team” to carry four quarterbacks, coach Vance Joseph said Monday. “We were hoping that Jake could come back and help us at this point, but he’s not ready yet.”
The former Michigan star was a projected first-round pick before tearing his right ACL in the Orange Bowl. He slipped to the fifth round and the Broncos were hoping he’d give them a much-needed boost at the midpoint of the season.
Joseph also announced Monday that he’s sticking with Brock Osweiler as his starting quarterback despite his pair of costly interceptions in Denver’s 51-23 flop in Philadelphia on Sunday.
Despite making many mistakes and completing just half of his 38 throws, Osweiler energized the team after taking over for a turnover-prone Trevor Siemian and made several good decisions, such as his audible on his touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas, Joseph said.
Joseph isn’t committing to any quarterback beyond Sunday, when the Broncos (3-5) host the Patriots (6-2).
If Osweiler has another middling performance, Joseph might go back to Siemian or give former first-round draft pick Paxton Lynch a look, although he was quoted by the CBS crew Sunday as saying Lynch wasn’t ready physically or mentally to play after getting hurt in the preseason.
Joseph explained Monday that he wasn’t talking about “a lack of football IQ ,” but “I was talking more about time on the job. He’s missed so much time. So, to put him in an NFL game in Week 10 wouldn’t be fair to our football team or to Paxton.”
No matter who’s calling the plays, Joseph said the coaching staff has to do a better job preparing them.
Offensive coordinator Mike McCoy has stuck to a steady diet of three-wide receiver sets even though 18 of the 21 sacks and all 10 interceptions over the last six games have come out of that formation.
With five losses in six games, the Broncos are mired in their worst slump since a stretch of nine losses in 10 games that cost coach Josh McDaniels his job in 2010.
After each of their last four defeats, Joseph, a first-time head coach, has mentioned he didn’t see it coming because the team had great weeks of practice and had put together great game plans.
The silver lining is that Kansas City (5-3) has lost three straight so the Broncos are only two games out of the AFC West lead.
“We have time, but time’s running out,” Joseph said. “So, we’ve got to fix it right now.”