Cooper Is Back. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad Are Still All Denver Has at Linebacker.

Jonathon Cooper is off the commissioner's exempt list and active for Week 7. That part is straightforward good news for a defense that has been losing pieces faster than it can replace them.

The linebacker room, though, is still what it was before Cooper's situation began. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad are the two players who have logged meaningful snaps there this season, and that's the full rotation. Singleton is 32, which is the age where you stop assuming a linebacker will just keep going. Strnad handles the backup work. Behind them, Nik Bonitto is on the depth chart and hasn't played. One injury to either starter and Denver is genuinely short at the position, not thin — short.

Cooper's return doesn't change that math. It's a relief at the margins, and the Broncos needed the relief. But the linebacker room was a two-deep rotation when he left, and it's a two-deep rotation now.