Broncos LB Jonas Griffith left in the 1st half of Saturday night's preseason opener with a left-arm injury. We'll see about the severity.

Broncos LB Jonas Griffith has a chance to be ready for the regular-season opener after hyperextending his left elbow in the 1st preseason game. "Yeah, we're definitely hoping for Jonas to be ready Week 1," HC Nathaniel Hackett told the team website Wednesday. "That's kind of our aiming point. We very much dodged a bullet on that one." Griffith isn't yet a lock for the opener and has been working on a side field so far this week. But this is much better news than the initial 4-6 week expected return timeline. We've moved Griffith back up our IDP rankings some and consider him late-draft sleeper with big upside.

Broncos LB Jonas Griffith dislocated his left elbow in Saturday night's preseason opener and is expected to miss about 6 weeks, according to Troy Renck of Denver7. Griffith has been in line to start at ILB next to Josey Jewell. In the wake of his injury, the Broncos signed veteran LB Joe Schubert. We'll see about Griffith's actual return timeline and how the team proceeds at the position.

Mike Klis of 9News in Denver predicted on our podcast Friday that Broncos LB Jonas Griffith will join Josey Jewell in the starting lineup this season. Ourlads already lists Griffith in that spot on their Broncos depth chart. Klis added that he wouldn't be surprised to see Griffith stay on the field for 3rd downs -- even ahead of Jewell, who signed a 2-year, $11 million extension in March, including $6 million guaranteed. Griffith emerged to start the final 4 games of last season amid myriad LB injuries for the Broncos. That followed 2 years spent mostly on practice squads for San Francisco and Denver after Griffith went undrafted out of Indiana State. He sports enviable size (6'4, 250), though, a strong speed score and a good record of college production. As a guy likely to be available late into IDP drafts this summer, Griffith could be a season-altering sleeper if he approaches his ceiling.