The first game-time glimpse of Dre Greenlaw in a Denver Broncos uniform is still yet to come.
After holding him out in the preseason, Greenlaw and Alex Singleton won’t make their game-time debut together until next Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. Following the quadriceps injury that he suffered while covering J.K. Dobbins during a one-on-one practice drill on July 31, caution became the watchword, and he didn’t see full-speed repetitions until the final preseason week.
“We are being smart, we’re being conservative, relative to the approach,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Monday. “It’s a long season, and so, most importantly, having him not only healthy early on but for the long haul is the goal.”
Greenlaw missed all but two games last year in the aftermath of the torn Achilles tendon he suffered in Super Bowl LVIII and he hasn’t played an entire season’s worth of games since his rookie campaign of 2019, although he missed just two regular-season games in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
“I think with each player, you have to treat them accordingly relative to the injuries, the injury history, the position they play,” Payton said.
“Is there always risk when you’re lining up out there, playing a position like that? There certainly is, but he’s very much in tune to what we’re doing.”
Still, that means the next glimpse of Greenlaw with his inside-linebacker partner, Alex Singleton, will be the first — at least when it comes to full-speed, full-contact repetitions. It wasn’t until the afore-mentioned final preseason week that Singleton and Greenlaw were able to settle into an everyday groove playing alongside each other.
The duo sit next to each other in the inside-linebacker room, but the cohesion that must be developed at game speed will have to come as the season progresses. But getting the chance for that to happen was the top priority, and maximizing that was why they decided to take the cautious approach with their free-agent pickup after he dealt with a second quad injury in four months.
GETTING SINGLETON BACK WILL HELP GREENLAW AND THE DEFENSE, TOO
The return of Singleton is tantamount in importance to Greenlaw’s arrival.
When he suffered his ACL tear in Week 3 last season, the Broncos lost their leading tackler of three consecutive seasons and a defensive captain. But they also saw more than that leave the lineup.
“Well, he’s a great communicator,” Payton said. “I think there are a couple things that I’m not going to say are musts, but certainly pluses for inside linebackers. Number one are instincts, tackling But he is a calming influence relative to getting the defense lined up.
“He wears the green dot, his leadership, so, all those things outside of just his ability to play and tackle, he communicates well. He’s I’m sure considered one of our leaders.
“… There’s a lot of intangible things that you lose when you lose a player like that.”
