Source: Hamler tears his pectoral muscle
KJ Hamler just can’t shake the bad injury luck.
The fourth-year wide receiver recently tore his pectoral muscle while training on his own away from the Broncos facility, a source confirmed to The Post on Thursday morning, and had surgery to repair the injury.
He is looking at a rehabilitation timeline of four to six months, the shorter end of which would have him healthy for the start of training camp in late July.
Dr. Clint Soppe, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-sinai Kerlan-jobe Institute in Los Angeles, told The Post that the timeframe sounded “pretty reasonable” and that typically the first three months are about allowing the muscle, which most of the time has to be surgically reattached to the sternum, to start to heal and regenerate.
“And then there’s usually kind of a maturation time where the tendon is developing and then also building back the strength from atrophy around the injury,” Soppe said.
He said Hamler would likely start to make faster progress in that stage of the recovery, hence the 1-3-month window.
In a non-football environment, the injury usually occurs while bench pressing or lifting heavy weights. While the injury is a serious and traumatic one, Soppe said typically the rehabilitation process is more straightforward than a serious injury to the shoulder joint itself.
“The true joint of the shoulder can get somewhat stiff from just the early immobility, but it usually regains its full mobility relatively quickly,” he said, adding that there isn’t a ton of data on re-injury rates for torn pecs, but “most of the time once it heals, you’re good to go.”
Hamler, the 2020 second-round pick out of Penn State, was just getting back toward full health after a hamstring injury and subsequent aggravation cost him the final nine games of the 2022 season. Hamler missed almost all of the 2021 season with a serious knee and hip injury and the rehabilitation carried all the way through training camp last summer. He played 40 snaps in Denver’s season opener at Seattle but then was inactive in Week 2.
Slowly, he worked his way back into playing shape and made the biggest play of his season — a 46-yard catch that jump- started a game-winning touchdown drive in London against Jacksonville — as the Broncos headed into their bye week.
He injured his hamstring in practice ahead of Denver’s first game after the break, however, and never made it back to the field after aggravating the injury a few weeks later.
Hamler overall has played in just 11 games over the past two seasons. He is entering the final season of his four-year rookie contract. In January as he cleaned out his locker, Hamler acknowledged he faced a critical offseason and said he was looking forward to attacking it.
“I feel like I get to really build strength instead of rehabbing it and getting everything right,” he said then. “I’m taking all the right steps to get my knee right because that was the biggest challenge. I wasn’t really able to build strength or build muscle. I’m going to do everything. It’s time to work.”
WILSON’S KNEE SCOPE>> Denver quarterback Russell Wilson had a minor procedure on his knee after the team’s season ended in January, a source confirmed to The Post.
Wilson was in and out the same day and quickly back to his normal training routine. He was on the injury report for three different issues in 2022 — his throwing shoulder, a hamstring and a late- season concussion — but never for a knee issue.
The offseason procedure is not expected to impact his offseason program.
BRONCOS SIGN RB TONY
JONES>> Denver added another player familiar with head coach Sean Payton on Thursday in running back Tony Jones Jr., the team announced.
Jones, 25, played for New Orleans from 2020-22 and also appeared in four games for Seattle last year. Jones has 179 career rushing yards (2.7 per carry) and 10 catches for 59 yards in his career. He is the 13th known player to sign with Denver since free agency began 10 days ago.
BRONCOS HIRE CCO>> Denver on Thursday announced it hired Dennis Moore as its chief commercial officer.
Moore is a familiar face in Dove Valley, as he worked for the franchise from 200319. Since 2020, he’s been the chief revenue officer for the MLS franchise St. Louis City FC. According to a news release, Moore will report to team president Damani Leech, serve on the Broncos’ senior leadership team and lead “all commercial revenue generation for both the Broncos and Empower Field at Mile High. His responsibilities include overseeing the club’s partnership sales, media sales and activations teams while collaborating across numerous other departments throughout the organization.”