Cooper Comes Back for Week 7, and Denver's Linebacker Room Is Still Short

Jonathon Cooper is off the commissioner's exempt list and eligible to play in Week 7. That's the news, and it's genuinely good news for a defense that has been patching holes since August.

The problem is that Cooper's return doesn't fix the linebacker rotation, which is where the real damage sits. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad are the only two linebackers who have logged meaningful snaps this season, and that's a thin number for a 17-game schedule. Nik Bonitto is listed behind them on the depth chart but hasn't produced at that level yet. The Broncos entered the year already short here — Levelle Bailey broke his leg in the preseason and never made it to Week 1 — and nothing since has changed that count. Two functional linebackers is a rotation that works until it doesn't.

Cooper is listed Active on the current injury report, so there's no obstacle on that side. My read is that his value to this defense is real, but it's at edge and outside linebacker — it doesn't directly address the inside depth problem that's been sitting there since training camp. Denver gets a piece back. The room is still thin.