Rookie wide receivers find major roles in Broncos’ offense

Going into the season, rookie wide receivers Brandon Johnson, Jalen Virgil and Montrell Washington likely did not expect to be thrust into significant roles in the Broncos’ offense.

As injuries have sidelined key players, though, rookies have been thrust into the lineup to fill key roles. After Tim Patrick tore his ACL during training camp, the starting wide receiver unit consisted of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler — but that group has not taken the field together since before the Broncos’ Week 9 bye. Hamler has not played since Week 8 due to a hamstring injury, Jeudy essentially missed three games after suffering an ankle injury on the Broncos’ first offensive play against the Titans and Sutton may be unable to play this week against the Chiefs with a hamstring injury.

“As a result, the Broncos for the third straight week will have three rookies in the lineup at wide receiver when they host the Chiefs,” The Athletic’s Nick Kosmider wrote. “And this isn’t 2020, when Jeudy and Hamler were drafted in the first and second rounds, respectively, and expected to make an immediate impact. This is two undrafted players and a fifth-rounder who few predicted would be taking meaningful snaps this late in the year for a team that began the season with numerous weapons at the position.”

To get an inside look at how Johnson, Virgil and Washington have handled their unexpected roles, Kosmider sat down with each of them and inquired about the most challenging aspects of their adjustments to playing at the NFL level.

“I would say it requires a lot more on an intellectual level because defenses are a lot more complex and there’s just a lot more that goes into the preparation of it,” Johnson told Kosmider. “When you’re out there, it seems like you have to think about a million things at the same time, as opposed to college where you might get a signal and you know you have one job to do and just have to do your job. Out here, you have to think about the…