ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos designated receiver Tim Patrick to return to practice Wednesday and be activated from injured reserve to their 53-man roster within 21 days.
The Broncos don’t have to activate Patrick until the week of their Buffalo game on November 24, although he said Wednesday the plan is for him to play the previous week, November 17 at Minnesota.
Patrick suffered a broken hand that required surgery to repair while playing in the Broncos’ season-opening loss at Oakland on September 9.
He wasn’t cleared to start catching passes until Monday. He won’t play Sunday against the Browns, but he will stay back in Denver and practice during next week’s bye.
"Yeah, I'll be here probably doing some mock practices just to stay in shape,’’ Patrick said. “Since I haven't been really doing much just to get myself prepared to play in the game."
After playing the Browns this week, and practicing little during the bye next week, Patrick will compete with Fred Brown and DaeSean Hamilton as the Broncos’ No. 2 complement to No. 1 receiver Courtland Sutton for the first game after the bye, against Gary Kubiak’s Vikings in Minnesota.
Von has sore knee
Broncos star pass rusher Von Miller observed but didn’t participate in practice Wednesday because of knee irritation. Miller missed one training camp practice because of a sore knee but nothing more until Wednesday.
Coming off the game on the Indianapolis turf, it made sense to sit him out as a precaution Wednesday. He’s expected to practice the rest of the week and play Sunday against the Brown.
Miller has been contained to 4.0 sacks at the halfway point of the season.
Bronco Bits
Sutton on adjusting to new quarterback Brandon Allen after eight games with Joe Flacco: “Timing. Timing is the biggest key. Joe and I have been working on timing since OTAs, so that’s a lot of time to get a lot of reps, lot of routes on air, a lot of seven-on-seven and a lot of in practice good-on-good reps. It’s a lot of stuff that Brandon and I and the rest of receivers are going to have to learn with him moving forward at a really quick pace, but you know we’re excited for it.” …
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio said right tackle Ja’Wuan James (knee) was “50-50” to play Sunday and tight end Jeff Heuerman was “less than 50-50” to play. With the bye on the other side, it would may make sense for them to get a full two weeks to heal.
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