Broncos Release Receiver Off Injured Reserve As Position Becomes More Competitive

The Denver Broncos have a lot of talent in their receiving group, and this week they made a move to thin the herd by releasing receiver Mike Woods off injured reserve with an injury settlemen, according to a report from Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk via the NFL’s transaction wire. 

Woods signed with the Broncos back in May after a successful tryout during the team’s rookie minicamp, Simmons added, but he was waived/injured earlier this month. 

The Cleveland Browns took him in the sixth round back in 2022, and Woods has appeared in 15 games with two starts. His production was minimal, as Woods has a total of 12 catches for 110 yards in his NFL career. 

This move is a reflection of two things: (1) Sean Payton has little patience for injured players when he has a group that’s strong enough to provide legitimate competition along with viable moves based on that (2) The strength of the so-called lesser receivers with a couple of recent signings that made Woods expendable. 

The player who changed the group the most was Hakeem Butler, who was signed out of the UFL after a season in which he was the offensive player of the year in that league. Payton has always had an interest in viable UFL player, and while Butler hasn’t been able to stick on an NFL roster to date, he did make a variety of plays in minicamp. 

At 6’5” and 242 pounds, Butler offers what Luca Evans of the Denver Post called a “natural fluidity [that’s] hard to teach at his size.”

The player Butler is competing against is Lil’Jordan Humphrey, who has been the Broncos’ size option at receiver behind Courtland Sutton. Humphrey spent most of last season with the New York Giants, but the Broncos picked him up after the Giants released him, and he was able to make some plays while providing serviceable depth. 

The other player who’s changing the game here in this part of the receiver group is Dane Key, a late-round draft pick whose college career included stops at Nebraska and Kentucky. Evans noted that Key stood out in summer workouts, providing what the writer called “good speed in space,” with size at 6’3” and a “handful of chunk catches.” 

No information about the nature of the injury or the size of the settlement was provided in Simmons’ report or on the transaction wire, nor was it mentioned if Woods will be healthy enough to try to catch on with another team during the summer.