Thread: How big of a loss was Derek Wolfe?

The Denver Broncos have added their tenth and eleventh players of the season to the injured reserve list.

Today Derek Wolfe and Chris Harris Jr. were both added to the IR. Both of these players were starters to start the season. This makes seven defensive players on IR, four of which were starters.

Derek Wolfe suffered “seizure-like symptoms” on November 29th on the teams bus ride to the airport. He has practiced only twice since then. Reports say he lost quite a bit of weight, and was never cleared by team doctors, who have monitored him closely since the incident.

The Broncos have lost a handful of pass rushers this season, including rookies Lerentee McCray, Quanterus Smith, and veterans Kevin Vickerson, Von Miller, and now Derek Wolfe.

Derek Wolfe has provided some good snaps for the pass rush this year. He recorded four sacks, hit the quarterback another six times, and hurried the QB 28 times. He has ten stuffs, which is the number of solo tackles that constitute an offensive failure...CONTINUE READING

Wolfe rocks, I hope he gets well

I was gonna say, probably a big loss. I like him a lot as a player, he's aggressive and effective. hope he returns next year, but kinda doubt it. both he and Rahim have some serious medical issues that will probably retire them both soon

I dont know. 16 tackles and 4 sacks in 11 games. I think Ayers, Jackson and Phillips outplayed him all season. When healthy, he's a solid player, but has yet to live up to any of the hype

Originally Posted by CoachChaz

I dont know. 16 tackles and 4 sacks in 11 games. I think Ayers, Jackson and Phillips outplayed him all season. When healthy, he's a solid player, but has yet to live up to any of the hype

Almost ever since they posted it I've been quoting another Week 5 BSN article that said Wolfe was double teamed on 42% of his snaps. Millers return left offenses three choices:

1) Play Miller and/or Wolfe one-on-one, 2) Give Phillips, Vickerson or Knighton a free shot at the QB or 3) Use 7+ blockers. Any of those options sound good?

The fleeting whole of Wolfe AND Miller was greater than the sum of its parts, because even when one got doubled he created opportunities for the other and for the rest of our front four. Unfortunately, Miller missed the first 6 and Wolfe the last 5 regular season games, so we only had both for 5 games. During that time though Phillips is the only one I valued as highly as Wolfe.

Coach, how uncommon and valuable are 4-3 DEs who don't just play the run OR pass well, but BOTH? Not elite pass rushers but weak run stoppers like Mathis and Doom, nor solid run stuffers but weak pass rushers like Ayers; DEs who can play every down and even play DT in 3rd and long nickel? Wolfe sometimes reminded me of Trevor Pryce, so I miss him nearly as much.

Hopefully Jackson/Ayers steps up to fill that void, and hopefully (please, God!) we have no more injuries. Against Brady and the NE RB rotation we need DEs who play the run AND pass well, and will again if we reach the SB against either Seattle or SF. Wolfes loss is potentially huge, IMHO, on par with and compounded by Millers. Phillips is phenomenal, but can't play both sides at once.

He seemed to start off slow this season but seemed to be coming around right before he got hurt. I think the loss of Harris was much more significant but I also feel we would be a much better team with Wolfe as part of the DL rotation.

I think you can look at the play, the performance and the numbers and see that the defense is better with Jackson, Ayers and Phillips on the field than they are with Miller and Wolfe. Wolfe just doesnt seem to do anything without Miller out there and I dont know that I buy into teams double teaming him more than they would Phillips on the other side. But who knows. Either way, I think the team is fine without Wolfe. It would be nice to have him in the rotation...but he doesnt make or break us.

Originally Posted by CoachChaz

I think you can look at the play, the performance and the numbers and see that the defense is better with Jackson, Ayers and Phillips on the field than they are with Miller and Wolfe. Wolfe just doesnt seem to do anything without Miller out there and I dont know that I buy into teams double teaming him more than they would Phillips on the other side. But who knows. Either way, I think the team is fine without Wolfe. It would be nice to have him in the rotation...but he doesnt make or break us.

That's a... bold statement (especially since Phillips is out there most of the time anyway; it's pretty much Miller+Wolfe vs. Irving+Ayers/Jackson.) I guess we'll see; we had Miller and Wolfe @NE (but also had Vickerson and DRC till the second half, and losing them seemd to hurt most then.) I'm just going by BSNs numbers on Wolfe getting double teamed when Miller was out; 42% was nearly half his snaps, and a strong indicator of whom opposing coaches considered most dangerous in our front seven. I hope you're right, because we need good D to finish our run.

Good or bad player...

...doesn't bode well for Wolfe returning to the NFL...esp as a starter.

Sad...

I saw on the NFL ticker today that they listed it as a spinal injury when they put him on IR.

I could look it up but didn't he have a similar incident with similar symptoms last season during the pre-season?
I remember something weird happened to him that was in the news.

Originally Posted by EastCoastBronco

I could look it up but didn't he have a similar incident with similar symptoms last season during the pre-season?
I remember something weird happened to him that was in the news.

No, not last year. He didn't miss any time last year. There's a possibility they brought him back too soon from his spinal injury.

Originally Posted by Al Wilson 4 Mayor

I saw on the NFL ticker today that they listed it as a spinal injury when they put him on IR.

That suggests it's either a tragic coincidence, or the early statements to the press that it was unrelated to his preseason spinal injury—that tests had ruled that out even though they couldn't determine WHAT the problem is—were pretty much bull. I guess that's not the only possibility, but the only other explanation that comes to mind is that someone at the NFL just decided to list it as the previous injury because they didn't have any other specific injury with which to classify it.

That really really sucks, for him even more than for us. I hope he got a lot of money on the first two years of his contract, and pray he's not at risk of serious long term problems. Scary stuff.

Wolfe played better with miller on field. But if he had a neck issue all season could be why play was slow during season. I hope all the time off gives him time to get healthy next season.

Originally Posted by NightTerror218

Wolfe played better with miller on field. But if he had a neck issue all season could be why play was slow during season. I hope all the time off gives him time to get healthy next season.

Yeah, had that thought, too. It was brought up earlier in the year, especially when his seizures began a debate over whether we were really losing all that much since he hasn't looked like he did last year. Yet that discussion was quickly shutdown by the announcement the tests that clarified nothing nonetheless ruled out any connection to his preseason spinal injury. Now he's on IR with what's apparently listed as a spinal injury, which suggests all the earlier discussion of the preseason injuries lingering effects was quite justified.

Put it this way: If the effects were still so severe two months ago that he went out for the rest of the year, and are STILL so severe that he's officially done for the season, they were probably severe enough in the first WEEKS after the injury that it affected his play. I just hope and pray he gets healthy, period. I want a SB, but not badly enough to see a guy paralyzed or dead. In terms of the team though: We could very easily be facing a situation where two of our last three top picks never play again.