Denver Broncos Robert Ayers out Months, Many Injured Sunday in Baltimore

The injury bug is biting the Broncos again—and hard.

Denver couldn’t even begin the 2010 campaign without sustaining health problems, as both offensive line bookends, the Ryans (Clady and Harris), were banged up and couldn’t practice.

Then, the first day of training camp, 2009’s first first-round pick in Knowshon Moreno, pulled his hamstring. Correll Buckhalter was quick to follow him as both starting running backs, both starting tackles were hurt.

The most devastating injury was the loss of Elvis Dumervil, 2009’s NFL leader in sacks (17 also a Broncos franchise high), Denver’s only defender that could rush the passer well.

That was until Robert Ayers (2009’s second first-round pick) was thrust into the starting lineup to fill in for Dr. Doom and started playing inspired football for the first time in his career (19 tackles, two sacks).

But Monday brought sobering news for Denver diehards as Ayers, who played until the final whistle, was revealed to have a broken foot and will miss anywhere from 1-3 months.

Ayers is only one of six players already ruled out for Sunday’s match versus the Jets in Denver though as safety Brian Dawkins (knee, 2-3 weeks), his backup Darcel McBath (ankle), cornerback Andre Goodman (quadriceps) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring) were all injured versus the physically tough Ravens in Week Five.

So, on top of the Broncos missing three of their four top defensive backs this week (McBath also plays in the dime package usually), Denver will be without a starter at linebacker (Ayers) and his backup (Woodyard) as well.

Jason Hunter, who has played somewhat well, and Jarvis Moss, who was originally the backup to Dumervil but lost his job in training camp again this year, will have to fill in for Ayers for the time being.

Head coach Josh McDaniels commented on the health of his team saying, “Certainly the injuries don’t make it easy, but we’ve been dealing with that for quite some time now. The next guy’s got to step up and play well. We might have to be creative with a few things that we do, but that’s part of everyone’s season.”

True, every team goes through injuries throughout a demanding and difficult NFL season, it’s just rare for so many important players to get beat up on the same weekend.

Creative? McDaniels and defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale will have to be Thomas Edison-esque to find ways to stop New York’s suddenly potent offensive attack.

The Jets are winners of four straight games, their only loss coming to Baltimore (10-9) in Week One, have averaged 31.5 points per game over the last four weeks. Second year quarterback Mark Sanchez has been showing improvement in the passing game and he’s been spreading the ball around well.

Braylon Edwards provides a big, strong deep threat, Dustin Keller is a turning out to be a stellar tight end and Santonio Holmes just returned from a four-game suspension.

Rookie cornerback Perrish Cox will again be learning on the job, gaining valuable knowledge of how to play in the NFL, but he’ll likely have at least one miscue this Sunday. And who will be asked to attempt to hang will Keller is anyone’s guess as Martindale will probably ask the makeshift Denver defensemen to perform a variety of tasks they may haven’t tried yet.

The Broncos will have to go out and give their all against one of the best teams in the NFL for a second straight week, this time without many key starters.

If the Broncos can make this game versus the Jets competitive it will be a statement of teamwork, if they can win, it will be another step in the growing process for McDaniels and his team.

Denver Broncos Mailbag

The first B/R Denver Broncos Mailbag went well and I’m looking forward to writing another one. Please send in any questions, regarding anything surrounding the Broncos, to [e-mail] and I’ll be sure to answer them in my (hopefully) weekly mailbag piece.

Rich Kurtzman is a Colorado State Alumnus and a freelance journalist. Along with being the CSU Rams and Fort Collins Beer Bars Examiner, Kurtzman is a Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com and the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com.

Follow Rich on twitter and/or facebook for updates/articles.