Henderson Meets With Broncos Officials; Future Still Uncertain

By Zack Kelberman

(247 SPORTS) - A step in the right direction, troubled Denver Broncos wide receiver Carlos Henderson was at Broncos HQ on Tuesday morning to meet with team officials.

This is Henderson's first appearance at a Broncos facility since training camp opened in late July. The club placed him on the Reserve/Did Not Report list as he dealt with personal and family issues.

Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic reports there's "no update" regarding his future with the organization, though Henderson said he feels good and hinted at a potential return in a separate published report.

You couldn't script a worse start to an NFL career than Henderson's. Chosen in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft, the Louisiana Tech standout missed his entire rookie campaign with a thumb injury before being arrested for marijuana in January. He then sat out Organized Team Activities and minicamp practices due to a hamstring strain, and went AWOL at the onset of training camp.

Broncos head coach Vance Joseph twice publicly challenged Henderson about his commitment to the game.

"It's strictly on Carlos if he wants to continue to play football, if he wants to come back to camp and compete," Joseph said last month. "That's strictly personal with Carlos. We lost two guys and we added two guys at receiver, so we're at ninety and we're moving on and we're focused."

"We've had some conversations about other things than football. He's not ready for football right now, so we're not talking about football a lot. We're doing a good job as a team of checking on him on a daily basis."

Things went from bad to worse last week, when the NFL suspended Henderson one game without pay for violating the substance abuse policy, stemming from his arrest. This may have been the final nail in his coffin.

Denver has a bevy of receivers (Isaiah McKenzie, Tim Patrick, River Cracraft, John Diarse, Mark Chapman) competing for roster spots behind Sanders, Thomas and rookie sensations Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton. They're unlikely to keep more than six on the 53-man roster, which will be finalized on Sept. 1.

Despite his lofty draft status and theoretical playmaking ability, Henderson can't show up after a prolonged period and expect to have a job waiting for him. Not when there are hungrier players fighting every day to prove they belong.

Veteran receiver Emmanuel Sanders suggested as much, saying Henderson may have a tough time re-acclimating with his teammates.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened with this situation," Sanders said on July 29. "That's Carlos' situation that he has to deal with. I've seen this situation occur one time with a fellow teammate at SMU, [Dallas WR] Cole Beasley. He went out to Dallas and he said he didn't want to play. Then he came back a couple of weeks later and you know the story. He (Henderson) just has to figure it out. Whatever it is. If it's football, whatever, he's got to figure it out and he's got to find his happiness, and I hope he finds it."