ENGLEWOOD—Day to day has turned into week to week for Virgil Green.
The Denver Broncos’ tight end will miss his second consecutive game Sunday at Tampa Bay, as will right tackle Donald Stephenson. Both Green and Stephenson suffered strained left calf injuries in a week 2 win against Indianapolis.
Ty Sambrailo will again start in place of Stephenson at right tackle and John Phillips at tight end in place of Green. Jeff Heuerman will also take tight end snaps.
While Gary Kubiak quickly indicated Stephenson would be out a while, the Broncos’ head coach initially categorized Green’s status as “day to day.’’
Green said last Friday he planned on playing the following week at Tampa Bay but the calf didn’t come around as quickly as hoped. He strained the same calf during the offseason so the Broncos’ medical staff may be taking extra precaution.
“I don’t want to say it’s been a little slower than we thought,’’ Kubiak said. “We thought we were looking at a game, but we’re here at the end of the week. We pushed him a little bit yesterday. I don’t think he went backwards or anything, we just didn’t feel like we made enough progress to put him out there. It’s a long season.’’
Two safeties, Shiloh Keo (knee) and Justin Simmons (broken hand) are listed as questionable for the game against the Tampa Bay Bucs. It appears Simmons has a better chance of playing than Keo.
If one or both can’t go, Kubiak indicated the team would dress second-year cornerback Lorenzo Doss for the first time this season.
