Broncos WR Pat Bryant Carted Off With Leg Injury vs. 49ers
The cart came out in the third quarter. That's all anyone needed to see.
Denver Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant was carted off with a leg injury during Denver's game against the San Francisco 49ers, per ProFootballTalk. The Broncos have not announced a diagnosis, which makes the next day about imaging rather than a depth chart.
Bryant had been Denver's most productive wide receiver before he left. Three catches, 47 yards, a long of 30, on three targets. No other Broncos wideout reached 35 yards. Jaylen Waddle caught 5 of 6 targets for 35 yards and the team's only receiving touchdown. Courtland Sutton saw 6 targets and caught 1 for 4 yards. Evan Engram caught 1 of 5 for 6 yards. Marvin Mims Jr. had 1 catch for 10 yards and lost a fumble.
Bo Nix finished 25-of-42 for 214 yards, 5.1 yards per attempt, 1 touchdown, no interceptions, an 80.9 passer rating. His most reliable target was running back RJ Harvey: 10 catches on 10 targets for 68 yards. Denver dropped back 42 times and generated almost nothing downfield once Bryant was gone.
That is the part that should worry the building more than the cart itself. Bryant was the one Denver receiver winning beyond the sticks, and his 15.7 yards per catch was more than double Waddle's 7.0. A receiving corps that already leaned on Waddle's short-area work now has to replace the only player stretching the field.
My read: the Broncos can survive a week of this. A month is a different season. If Bryant misses extended time, expect Denver's passing game to compress into checkdowns to Harvey and underneath work to Waddle and Engram, with Sutton drawing the coverage that used to be split between two receivers. That's a functional offense. It isn't a threatening one, and Denver doesn't have a spare downfield receiver sitting around to fix it.
