The Broncos are pushing their decision on wide receiver Josh Reynolds to the final day.
Denver on Monday downgraded Reynolds (finger) to out and the team did not activate him for the primetime game against Cleveland.
Reynolds has been on injured reserve since October after he sustained a hand injury that required surgery during the Broncos’ Week 5 win over Las Vegas. After that injury, Reynolds was also shot twice during an incident in which he and two others were in a vehicle that was shot at dozens of times after being followed leaving a strip club Oct. 18, according to an arrest affidavit.
Reynolds has practiced in the lead-up to each of the Broncos’ past three games. The final day of his 21-day return-to-play window is Tuesday, meaning the team must either activate him back to the 53-man roster or have him revert to injured reserve. If he reverts to IR, his season will be over.
Reynolds was Denver’s No. 2 receiver behind Courtland Sutton before injuring his hand. He had 12 catches for 183 yards and the touchdown against the Raiders and showed down-the-field ability.
Since he’s been out, the Broncos have seen rookie Devaughn Vele rise to essentially the No. 2 option behind Sutton. Sutton, meanwhile, was on fire the past five weeks. Entering Monday night’s game against the Browns, he had 744 yards and five touchdowns and averaged 93.4 receiving yards per game over the Broncos’ past five.
The only other player ruled out Monday night for Denver was cornerback Riley Moss (knee).
Sanders inactive. Drew Sanders’ 2024 debut will wait until after the bye week.
Denver activated the second-year linebacker from the physically unable to perform list this week but made him inactive for Monday night’s game against Cleveland. That kept Dondrea Tillman in the outside linebacker rotation with Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and rookie Jonah Elliss.
The rest of Denver’s inactives: Moss, QB Zach Wilson (emergency third quarterback), offensive linemen Frank Crum and Nick Gargiulo and defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike.
Pro Bowl voting. Broncos players are dotted across the initial round of Pro Bowl fan voting.
Pat Surtain II is second among cornerbacks, behind only Marlon Humphrey. Nik Bonitto is third among outside linebackers. Denver has a pair of defensive tackles in the top 10 in Zach Allen (sixth) and John Franklin-Myers (10th), while Brandon Jones is sixth among strong safeties.
Offensively, rookie quarterback Bo Nix is ninth among signal-callers and Michael Burton is seventh among fullbacks. Denver’s special teams are well represented, too, with kicker Wil Lutz (sixth), punter Riley Dixon (seventh), long snapper Mitchell Fraboni (ninth), returner Marvin Mims Jr. (10th) and special teams specialist Tremon Smith (10th) all in their respective top 10s, too.
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