Crushing news for the Broncos: Linebacker Elvis Dumervil is out at least four months after tearing his pectoral muscle, according to Adam Schefter.

I'm looking at our injury database for a player with a comparable return time, and well, it's not looking very likely. The only guys who were able to come back from a torn pectoral and end up playing in the same season were players who were listed with partial tears (Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Ruben Brown) or slight tears (Dave Brown).

The lone exception, and perhaps the player that Broncos fans can pin their hopes on: Buccaneers guard Matt O'Dwyer. In 2004, O'Dwyer tore his pectoral lifting his weights right around July 20. (It was reported on the 20th; I suppose it could have been a day or two earlier). O'Dwyer had missed most of the 2003 season with assorted injuries to his elbow and foot, but he was expected to be the starting right guard for the Bucs in 2004.

O'Dwyer was placed on PUP and missed the maximum 12 weeks of the year before being activated off the PUP list. He played in four games before being returned to the inactive list for Week 17, and while he was signed by the Packers during the subsequent offseason, he never played another NFL game.

That's not to say that the injury will have those sort of effects on Dumervil's career, of course; he should be able to make a full recovery. But don't expect that recovery to be complete until sometime in January or February.

UPDATE: The injury apparently came when Dumervil was participating in a one-on-one pass blocking drill with, yes, Tyler Polumbus.

Posted by: Bill Barnwell on 05 Aug 2010

28 comments, Last at 09 Aug 2010, 4:49pm by jklps