Broncos Don't Expect K Brandon McManus to Play on Saturday vs. Bills

For the umpteenth time this season, the Broncos are leaning on another contingency plan, only this time, at the kicker position.

The Denver Broncos have been unlucky this year, from an epidemic of injuries striking so many of the team's best players to an actual pandemic robbing the team of several more along the way. With the Buffalo Bills headed to the Mile High City for a Saturday bout with the Broncos, another unfortunate domino fell when kicker Brandon McManus had to go on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday due to "close contact" exposure to an infected person outside the team facility. 

Per league rules under the 'intensive' COVID-19 protocols, a "close contact" player must test negative five days before being allowed back in the building or on the field of play. For McManus, if you were counting Monday, that would make him available to play in the nick of time on Saturday, provided he tested negative for the virus on the final day. 

However, due to a gray area of sorts between how the NFL views when that five-day count should begin and where McManus sees it, the word from on-high to the Broncos is that they won't have their kicker on Saturday. 

"As we sit here today, no," Fangio said. "I know there's still some question with him and the league where his counting of days should have started. I don't know where that stands. Unless they change, he won't play. If it would have been a Sunday game, he would have played." 

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The contingency plan? The 31-year-old Taylor Russolino, whom the Broncos signed to the practice squad following Week 12's whirlwind that saw Denver have to play the New Orleans Saints without a quarterback. 

That, for lack of a better term, scared the Broncos straight, prompting the team to bring in QB Kyle Shurmur as a possible emergency option as well as Russolino in the event that something similar happened with McManus. 

Fortunately, this time, the Broncos' preemptive planning will serve the team well as Russolinocan be elevated to the gameday roster to kick vs. the Bills on Saturday. 

"That was something we had talked about before all that, if something happened to Brandon last minute that way, that we needed to get a kicker in here," Fangio said. "It was something we discussed during the season and finally did it that week." 

So what do we know about Russolino? He's an ex-XFL kicker for the St. Louis Battlehawks who's also seen time in the CFL and Arena League. A Louisiana native, Russolinowent to school at Millsaps College. 

Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon has seen Russolino kick up close, having worked with him on the practice field since he arrived ahead of Week 13. Fangio got his first look at Russolinokicking ability on Wednesday. 

"We all got our first look at him yesterday because since he's been here, he's been working and practicing while guys were meeting so none of us have really seen him other than Tom," Fangio said. "He kicked very well yesterday in practice, I was very encouraged by what he did in practice yesterday. If he kicks as well as he did in practice yesterday, we'll be fine."

Week 15 is shaping up to offer yet another weird outlier obstacle for the Broncos to overcome in what has been a helter-skelter 2020 campaign severely impacted by the pandemic. Fortunately, this time around, it's not like Russolinohas to learn a playbook or special verbiage. 

He's a kicker. He lines up, goes through his pre-kick ritual, like a basketball player making his free-throw, and boots the ball. So long as he keeps his stroke consistent, that's about all a kicker need focus on. 

At least Russolino will benefit from playing in the thin air of Mile High where the ball can travel significantly farther. It's going to be fun to see how it shakes out. What's the worst that could happen? 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.