Broncos center Lloyd Cushenberry to miss “a couple weeks” with groin injury

Denver head coach Nathaniel Hackett indicated Tuesday he does not plan to shake up his coaching staff during the Broncos’ bye week.

Coming off a 21-17 win against Jacksonville in London but sporting a 3-5 record, the first-year head coach said the focus on the bye week will be more schematic than making changes to his offensive or special teams staffs.

“We’re evaluating everything always, we’re making sure we check everything, find out if there’s anything else we can do for these players to put them in even better situations, but right now I like where we’re at,” Hackett said. “I like the (coaches) and how they’re working together, how they’re trying to find those things that we can do to put guys in good positions, whether it be throw the ball or run the ball, whatever we have to do, we’re going to look into all that kind of stuff.

“At the same time, it has been a unique schedule and we’ve got a nine-game run coming up. The guys need to recharge. They need to see their families, need to breathe a little bit so we can be fresh for this nine-game run.”

Cushenberry out. Center Lloyd Cushenberry will miss “a couple weeks” with a groin strain he sustained in the first half of Denver’s 21-17 win over the Jaguars on Sunday, Hackett said.

That means following this week’s bye, the Broncos will be down two starters (left tackle Garett Bolles suffered a season-ending leg fracture in Week 5) and on their fifth different starting combination on the offensive line heading into their ninth game.

The good news for Denver is it has a veteran replacement in Graham Glasgow. Glasgow started 13 games at right guard for Denver in 2020 and then seven at the position last year before sustaining a season-ending ankle fracture in Dallas. He came back to Denver on a restructured deal for 2022 that included a $5.3-million pay cut to his salary.

Glasgow spelled Meinerz earlier in the season when the latter had a hamstring injury, as Glasgow started at right guard in Weeks 2-5.

Other injury updates. Outside linebacker Baron Browning (hip) did not play against the Jaguars, while fellow edge rusher Randy Gregory (knee) is eligible to return from injured reserve for the Week 10 game in Tennessee.

Hacket was non-committal on both players’ status entering the bye week.

“All those things we are evaluating,” Hackett said Tuesday. “We’ve got this bye here for them to continually gain in strength and gain in health. So we’ll see as we get closer (to Week 10). But we just want to be sure they’re continuing to get rehab and get better for this team.”

Bye week work. Hackett said that while the team will be off for most of this week’s bye week, the coaches spent Tuesday breaking down the team’s disappointing 3-5 start.

“It’s about self-scouting and finding the areas we need to improve, and we’ve already been working on that on (Tuesday) morning,” Hackett said. “Third-down (efficiency) and red zone are things we have to continually get better at (on offense). Those have been our Achilles’ heels so far.”

Practice squad signee. The Broncos signed outside linebacker Zach McCloud to the practice squad on Tuesday. The former University of Miami standout appeared in 64 games (49 starts) over six seasons with the Hurricanes, and after going undrafted this year, spent the preseason with the Vikings.

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