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Ryan Clady injury: 'No decision' coming, says Gary Kubiak

Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison are mum about Ryan Clady being placed on Injured Reserve or his potential replacements stemming from his ACL injury suffered Wednesday.

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Ryan Clady is expected to miss the 2015 season after news broke of an expected ACL tear. While an IR designation seems inevitable/logical/likely, that news hasn't been confirmed by Broncos coaches just yet.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) in practice, Ryan was setting on a play and kind of felt his knee buckle a little bit," Kubiak said. "He actually played another play and then pulled himself out; he said his knee was sore. We really weren't that worried about it last night, everybody felt good. But we thought we'd take a look at it this morning and unfortunately we got some horrible news. So he's got an ACL [injury] and we are going to get it taken care of and then make some decisions; there will be no decisions made real quickly."

Asked for a timetable on a decision, Kubiak deferred for a little over a week.

"There will be no decisions made real quickly."Gary Kubiak

"Obviously there’s the IR designation that’s always available to the football team," said Kubiak. "So, they are going to let it calm down here for I think eight-to-10 days and then they are going to go in and take care of it and make a decision from there. Ryan’s got a little history of coming off of an injury so they have a pretty good feel of how long it would take him to do something like this. So, like I said, no decision will be made real quick."

Kubiak confirmed that rookie 2nd round draft pick Ty Sambrailo will get first shot at the left tackle spot, with Chris Clark starting at right tackle. The signing of Ryan Harris could add competition for Clark or even allow him to swing to the left side, as he did for the Broncos in their Super Bowl run of 2013. Broncos 2014 3rd round pick Michael Schofield should also be in the mix.

Offensive coordinator Rick Dennison spoke highly of Sambrailo and Schofield after practice Thursday.

"I think they're both developing. I think that's a good thing," said Dennison. "The learning you see every day—there is something else they learn how to do or understand what's going on and [how to] communicate with the guy next to them. That's always been a big deal for me. The five of them have got to work as a unit.

"I believe on all of them," continued Dennison, "not just those two guys, but all of those guys have made some strides in that direction."

With now only one returning starter expected for the Broncos' offensive line in 2015, Denver will need a number of players to make serious strides to compete in the division and AFC.

Quotes via Broncos.