Broncos defensive lineman Matt Henningsen, who was carted off at Friday’s practice, was diagnosed with a torn Achilles, Mike Klis of 9News reports. Henningsen’s injury came exactly one year to the day when he tore his other Achilles in a joint practice against the 49ers.
It means Henningsen will miss a second consecutive season.
The Broncos selected Henningsen in the sixth round of the 2022 draft, and he played in every game in his first two seasons. He spent all of 2024 on the team’s practice squad and then was on injured reserve all of last season.
The Broncos also saw wide receiver Marvin Mims go down, but Klis reports that the Broncos are hopeful that Mims’ injury is not serious.
Tight end Nate Adkins also left practice early.
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Broncos defensive lineman Matt Henningsen had to be carted off the field during Friday’s training camp practice.
There’s been no word from the team yet about the nature of his injury, but reports from media members at the team’s facility painted a grim picture of the scene. Henningsen went down during a drill and players took a knee around him before he was helped to a cart by medical personnel.
It’s an all too familiar course of events for Henningsen. He tore his Achilles during a joint practice with the 49ers last August and missed the entire season.
Henningsen was a 2022 sixth-round pick and he played in every game over his first two seasons. He had 40 tackles and a sack, but spent all of 2024 on the team’s practice squad.
The Broncos’ defense is planning to set the NFL record for sacks this year, and they’re not shy about saying so.
Last month it was Broncos defensive lineman Zach Allen who was openly predicting that his team would break the NFL sack record, and at training camp on Wednesday, teammate D.J. Jones said the same thing.
“We can break it. We can break the record,” Jones said. “What is that, 72? Yeah, we can break it.”
The NFL record for sacks in a season is 72, set by the 1984 Bears. Last year, the Broncos finished with 68 sacks. The Broncos think they can find five more sacks this season.
“We got what it takes,” Jones said. “We’ve tasted it. Now it’s time to cook the meal, eat it and take a break. You know how you eat a good meal, and you lay down after, take a good nap, and you wake up and go eat again? We’re about to eat again. It’s time. We got the numbers, we got the men, we got the willpower, we’ve got free will to go do it. So, it’s up to us, and we’re going to do that.”
Jones noted that Broncos defensive end Malcolm Roach even knocked quarterback Bo Nix down in practice, which is a no-no, but Jones said that’s just the physical nature of the Broncos’ defense.
“Bo got knocked down, but we play physical. You can’t slow down for nobody,” Jones said. “It got quiet. It got quiet real quick. Everybody stopped. But he was just doing his job.”
The Broncos think they have a lot of players who can do the job of taking down the opposing quarterback this season.
Broncos wide receiver Jaylen Waddle left practice early on Wednesday.
Coach Sean Payton said, via Nick Kosmider of TheAthletic.com, that Waddle left with muscle tightness but should be fine.
Waddle, 27, went to the locker room during an individual period and didn’t return.
The Broncos practiced without their other starting wide receiver, Courtland Sutton, for a second consecutive day. He had a vet day Tuesday, per Payton, who didn’t specify why Sutton missed Wednesday’s work but said Sutton will return Thursday.
Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto did individual work on a side field, per Kosmider, after leaving early on Tuesday with an undisclosed injury.
The Jaguars have added an experienced offensive lineman to their roster in the wake of Trystan Colon’s retirement.
The team announced the signing of Sam Mustipher on Thursday. Colon was placed on the reserve/retired list on Tuesday.
Mustipher has played for four teams and saw his most action while starting 41 games for the Bears between 2020 and 2022. He appeared in nine games for the Ravens in 2023 and 12 games for the Chargers in 2024 before being limited to one appearance for the Broncos last season. Mustipher made three more starts across those stops and most of his playing time has come at center.
The Jaguars have Robert Hainsey installed as their starting center. Hainsey and Mustipher played together at Notre Dame before moving into the NFL.
Former NFL linebacker Jerry Wayne Hopkins has died at 85. His funeral was Monday in Hillsboro, Texas.
(Hopkins is on the left in the photo.)
He played center and linebacker at Texas A&M from 1960-62, earning first-team All-Southwest Conference honors in his final college season. Hopkins played in three college all-star games — Blue-Gray Game, the Southwest Challenge Bowl and the All-American Classic.
The Houston Oilers selected Hopkins in the fourth round of the AFL draft in 1963. He played four seasons for the Broncos, one for the Dolphins and one for the Raiders.
Hopkins had a team-leading eight sacks in 1964 with the Broncos.
After his retirement, Hopkins owned and operated Hopkins Oil Company.
He is survived by his wife, Joan Brooks Hopkins; his son, Jerry Hopkins, Jr. (Ali); his daughter, Allison Hopkins; his granddaughter, Parker Hopkins; and his sister, Judy Baker (Buddy).
Broncos head coach Sean Payton will be in Canton, Ohio this week to take part in Drew Brees’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and he’ll also do a little work on a possible addition to his roster.
Payton said over the weekend that the Broncos will explore signing former Saints tight end Taysom Hill and Hill will also be in Canton for Brees’s induction. That will give Payton a chance to see where things stand.
“There’s no hurry right now. I’m going to see him in five days,” Payton said Monday, via Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com. “We’ll see where he’s at and kind of go from there. ... The key thing is his health and, you know, where he’s at mentally. I don’t want to assume he wants to play.”
Hill released a statement last month saying that he doesn’t “have a clear answer about what the future holds, but I know that returning to New Orleans is not in the cards.” He had knee surgery in 2024 that was performed by the Broncos’ team doctor Karim Meijer and Payton said that Meijer has followed up with Hill during visits in Denver since the operation.
Several teams are building and/or trying to build new stadiums. The Broncos are in the “trying to build” category.
And the key word is “trying.”
“It’s been almost a year since we announced Burnham Yard as our preferred site,” Broncos president Damani Leech told reporters on Sunday. “It remains our preferred site. We’re laser focused on delivering it by 2031. It’s been a great effort by ownership, ourselves, the staff, the city.
“I’ve got to be honest, I wish we were further along in some areas than we are now. I think areas where we do control, particularly real estate, you mentioned Burnham Yard, real estate, engaging with the community, we’ve done site tours of the location, the design of the stadium continues to evolve, the master plan continues to evolve. All of those things are moving along really, really well, but we also understand that we can’t do this alone.
“There are certain things we don’t control. I think as an example, the community benefits process is something that we can’t control. We’ve had a lot of initial great discussions with community representatives. More recently here, it’s been on more of a staff level. We’re eager to engage with those community members directly, understand what they’re looking for, what needs and interests they have on the development. Things like that, we have to continue to progress. We said many months ago, this is an ambitious timeline, so for that to happen, we need everybody to be involved. We can’t do it alone in order to get to 2031.”
Leech said opening the stadium by 2031 is “still achievable for sure,” but that “everybody has to be involved.”
Is there frustration with the process?
“I’ll be honest, there are days when I have concern,” Leech said, “there are days when I have frustration because you can’t control it all, so I think that’s fair.”
On one hand, five years is forever. On the other hand, it’ll fly by. Regardless of where it goes from here, it’s clear that it hasn’t gone the way the Broncos would like.
The Broncos added some speed to their offense during the offseason by trading for receiver Jaylen Waddle.
Quarterback Bo Nix has been impressed with what Waddle brings to the club.
“He’s an explosive playmaker,” Nix said over the weekend, via transcript from the team. “The guy is really good at what he does. He makes plays, he’s fast, he’s really explosive. He’s great ball in hand, he’s great going to get the ball deep, he’s great in the screen game. He can do just a lot of things. He’s very versatile. He adds an extra element to our offense, and it’s exciting.
“We have a lot of different weapons that we’re using, and I think top to bottom, this is just a really strong team, really good. We just have to find what works for us and find ways to utilize all our tools.”
Nix added that the Waddles’ presence and explosiveness can lead to more opportunities everywhere.
“Middle of the field, outside, vertically, behind the line of scrimmage,” Nix said. “We’re going to utilize him and whatever the defense is giving us, we’re going to attack.”
Waddle caught 64 passes for 910 yards with six touchdowns in 16 games for the Dolphins last year.
Sam Ehlinger took the Broncos’ second-team snaps on Saturday, Mike Klis of 9News reports.
Jarrett Stidham, the team’s backup to Bo Nix the past two seasons, was with the third team.
“There was nothing remarkable or anything that we discussed in a meeting, so maybe they just unfolded where . . . I wouldn’t make anything into it,’’ Broncos head coach Sean Payton said, via Klis.
It was the first time Ehlinger has run the No. 2 offense, though, when Nix is healthy. (Ehlinger was the backup to Stidham in the AFC Championship Game when Nix was out with an ankle injury.)
Ehlinger had a chance to leave for Washington and Indianapolis last season — and perhaps a better chance at the No. 2 job — but remained on the Broncos’ practice squad. Now, it appears he will push Stidham for the backup job.
“I think we just sold our program and the offense,’’ Payton said of keeping Ehlinger. “We could never promise anything other than [a chance to develop]. I would say this, we saw immediate growth, and I think you’d have to ask him, but I think he felt like, ‘I want to continue with this offense and continue where I’m going.’ I think he felt good about it to make that decision.”
