5:55pm: Patrick has indeed suffered a complete tear of the Achilles, per Mike Klis of 9News in Denver (via Twitter). The injury will knock Patrick out for the entire 2023 campaign.

1:50pm: Tim Patrick was expected to play a significant role in the Broncos’ offense this year after missing all of last season. Instead, the veteran wideout appears to have suffered another massive injury.

The 29-year-old is believed to have suffered a torn Achilles, head coach Sean Payton said on Monday (Twitter link via NFL Network’s James Palmer). If that does turn out to be the case, it will mark a crushing blow for Patrick and the second consecutive year in which he loses a campaign to a major injury.

The former UDFA tore his ACL almost exactly one year ago, and he was sidelined for the 2022 season as a result. That injury occurred in his right leg, while this latest one affects his left. Patrick was carted off the field during practice, and he was seen on crutches when entering the locker room. At a minimum, he could be facing another extended absence to start the year, which would further delay his attempt to return to his pre-injury form.

Patrick put up almost identical statlines in 2020 and 2021, averaging 52 catches and 738 yards per season. He scored 11 touchdowns over that span, making him a full-time starter alongside Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton. Each of the latter two were mentioned frequently in trade talks this offseason, but the team has remained insistent that they will not be moved. Missing Patrick for, potentially, another full season would add to Jeudy and Sutton’s workloads in a passing attack which desperately needs improvement from last year.

The Broncos made a slight trade up the board to select Marvin Mims with their top pick in this year’s draft, giving them another young pass-catcher. Missing Patrick – along with KJ Hamler, who has battled injuries throughout his career and is currently on the NFI list – for any extended stretch could thrust Mims into an immediate starting role. Growing pains during his rookie season could hinder the effectiveness of Denver’s offense during Sean Payton‘s first year at the helm.

Further evaluation will be needed to determine if Patrick has been faced with another lengthy rehab process. If that does turn out to be the case, his future with the team could be put in doubt. The Utah product is due $5.5MM in guaranteed money this season, but none of his compensation in 2024 (the final year of his deal) is guaranteed. Patrick is set to count for just over $11MM in cap space this year, though an IR stay would obviously change the Broncos’ financial outlook at the receiver spot.

The Broncos finished last season with seven offensive starters out of the lineup, seeing injuries play a big role in a woeful campaign. The first of those took place during the team’s training camp. Tim Patrick missed all of last season because of an August 2 ACL tear.

Eight months later, Patrick will be ready to go for Sean Payton‘s offseason program. The former UDFA wide receiver said during an appearance on Steve Smith‘s Cut To It podcast he has received full clearance post-knee surgery. Patrick, 29, said he has been rehabbing at the Broncos’ facility and has resumed sprinting and jumping. He will, however, wear a brace to start his on-field receiving work.

“At this point, I’m cleared to do everything. At this point, I’m just doing repetition to get myself ready to play in a game,” Patrick said during the podcast, via the Denver Gazette’s Chris Tomasson. “I’m going to wear a knee brace just because of the way I play the game. I want to feel like I have that security and if it’s not restricting me and it’s allowing me to be me, I’m going to wear it because I know I play the game a little reckless. So just me knowing I have a knee brace on, I feel comfortable playing the way I’m going to play.”

Patrick’s absence was the first of many issues that hindered Denver’s offense, which sank to last in the league despite the March 2022 trade for Russell Wilson. The team fired Nathaniel Hackett, making the current Jets OC the third HC since the 1970 merger to be fired before his first season wrapped, and traded two draft choices for Payton. The ex-Saints leader’s recovery effort will involve Patrick, who is going into his seventh season with the Broncos. He is the team’s longest-tenured receiver, having joined Denver’s practice squad in 2017.

Arriving during John Elway‘s GM tenure, Patrick signed a three-year, $30MM extension during George Paton‘s first year in charge. That contract, finalized just before Courtland Sutton‘s four-year deal worth $60MM, runs through the 2024 season. Sutton is signed through 2025. Jerry Jeudy‘s rookie contract goes through 2023, though the Broncos — assuming Jeudy remains on their roster post-draft — have a fifth-year option decision due in May.

Jeudy and Sutton have come up in frequent trade rumors. The team is believed to want a first-round pick for Jeudy and a second-rounder for Sutton. As teams have not met those prices, Payton said the plan is to keep both for the 2023 season. Patrick’s knee injury effectively took him off the trade market.

The 6-foot-4 possession receiver started 31 games from 2020-21, combining for 1,476 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in that span. With KJ Hamler having suffered a partially torn pec earlier this offseason, Patrick should be positioned to be a Broncos regular again. That stands to help Payton’s Wilson effort to reignite Wilson, though it will be interesting to see if both Jeudy and Sutton flank Patrick once the team convenes for on-field work during the offseason program.

3:54pm: The MRI confirmed Patrick suffered a torn ACL, Klis tweets. This news will almost certainly end the veteran pass catcher’s season, and it obviously deals a blow to Denver’s talented but relatively unproven receiving cast.

Injuries continue to interfere with this group’s development. Sutton’s 2020 ACL tear came after a Pro Bowl season, while Hamler’s 2021 tear came a year after the Broncos took him in the second round. Patrick’s comes less than a year after he signed an extension to stay in Denver long-term. His through-2024 deal included $13MM guaranteed at signing and $18.5MM guaranteed for injury.

1:46pm: The Broncos’ receiving corps represented one of the drivers for Russell Wilson to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a move to Denver. The quarterback’s first Broncos wideout cast may be incomplete.

Tim Patrick went down during practice Tuesday, requiring cart transportation, and Denver7’s Troy Renck tweets the team fears a serious right knee injury. Bad news is expected, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.

A former UDFA the Broncos extended last year, Patrick is going through an MRI. Patrick, 29, went down after making an over-the-shoulder catch. The injury occurred as he started running after the reception, 9News’ Mike Klis notes (via Twitter).

Denver did well to beat the 2022 receiver market’s frenzy, signing both Patrick and Courtland Sutton to extensions — at $10MM per year and $15MM AAV, respectively — and the former has not dealt with the kind of injury trouble that has plagued Sutton and Jerry Jeudy since the Broncos formed their intriguing-but-unproven receiving corps. Patrick did miss some time in 2019 due to a broken hand, but since he became a starter in Denver a year later, the Utah product has only missed two games. One of those came because of a COVID-19 contraction last year.

The Broncos moved Patrick into a full-time player in 2020, when Sutton went down with an ACL tear in Week 2. Despite four quarterbacks (technically, three quarterbacks and one non-QB) making starts for the Broncos that season, Patrick totaled 742 receiving yards and six touchdowns. Last season, Jeudy suffered a Week 1 high ankle sprain and K.J. Hamler went down with an ACL tear in Week 3. Patrick posted 734 yards and five TDs, signing his extension midway through the 2021 campaign.

Hamler has returned from his severe knee injury, but Patrick offers security the former Penn State second-round pick has yet to provide. Should the Broncos receive bad news on Patrick, they may be a team to monitor for a veteran wideout — considering Jeudy and Sutton’s recent injury histories. The team was linked to needing to give up one of its receivers in hypothetical deals for Aaron Rodgers, but Noah Fant was the pass catcher included in the Wilson swap. The Broncos have Kendall Hinton — their emergency QB in 2020 — along with 2021 sixth-round pick Seth Williams and ex-Eagle Travis Fulgham on their roster behind their top four receivers.