ENGLEWOOD, Colo. —Tight end Jake Butt and quarterback Chad Kelly will be placed on injured reserve, Head Coach Vance Joseph announced Monday.
Both players were previously on the non-football injury list, which provides teams 21 days beginning in Week 6 to evaluate the status of those with that designation. After 21 days, organizations must decide whether to elevate those players to the active roster or place those individuals on IR.
"They're both going to go down," Joseph said. "Chad Kelly, obviously, he came back and practiced last week, and obviously numbers-wise, it doesn't make sense for our football team. We were hoping that Jake could come back and help us at this point, but he's not ready yet. So we're going to put both of those guys down."
Joseph hinted last week that Kelly would head to IR when he said Kelly's first practice session was "just OK," also adding that "it's pretty clear on Chad."
Butt practiced for the better part of the allotted three weeks and took just a few days off during the second week to recuperate from some soreness.
Joseph and the Broncos ultimately decided both players would be better served to finish the year on injured reserve.
