Jaylen Waddle's Status Is Up In The Air After Latest Injury Update

The Denver Broncos have a huge AFC West showdown in Week 8 against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. 

The Chiefs are coming off their first loss of the season, a 20-3 road defeat to the Seattle Seahawks. The Broncos are coming off a win over the Arizona Cardinals, with the defense doing the heavy lifting again. 

One big concern for this weekend's game is the status of star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. 

The Broncos' prized offseason trade acquisition reportedly aggravated his chest injury in the game against Arizona, and his status will be "determined at a later time" for this week's game against the Chiefs, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. 

Waddle had four catches for 48 yards in the Broncos win over the Cardinals in Week 7, but Rapoport added that the injury was aggravated on a reverse play in the game. 

Broncos reporter Mike Klis added that he expects Waddle to be questionable, but there is "hope" that the star WR will play against the Chiefs. 

Waddle has had a bit of a slow start to the season, although the entire Denver offense has struggled, even with Sean Payton resuming as the play-caller after Davis Webb started the season wearing the headset. 

Waddle has just 26 catches for 276 yards with 1 touchdown, and his only 100-yard game came in Week 2, when he had 8 catches for 138 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Apart from that, Week 7 was actually his highest output of the season in receiving yards, so it's been a surprisingly slow start for everyone in Denver. 

Waddle also leads the team in receptions and receiving yards, so nobody else has gotten much momentum as the offense has stalled a bit. 

Running back RJ Harvey is second in receptions (25) and yards (217), and Courtland Sutton, Evan Engram and Pat Bryant are the only other Broncos players to have more than 100 yards total in receiving this season. 

If Waddle can't go, it would be a brutal loss for Denver, and Sutton and Marvin Mims Jr. would have even more lifting to do on offense, with Troy Franklin also figuring to see more targets. 

The Broncos and Chiefs play on Sunday afternoon in Denver, so there is plenty of time for Waddle to recover and play, but his status is up in the air for the 5-2 Broncos going int a huge AFC West clash.