Brock Osweiler will be making his first start at quarterback for the Broncos on Sunday, but we’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out if he’ll be able to throw the ball to Emmanuel Sanders.
The wide receiver’s chances of being on the field look better than they did early in the week, however. Sanders missed practice on Wednesday due to ankle and finger injuries, but coach Gary Kubiak said Thursday that he expected Sanders to play and said, via Andrew Mason of the team’s website, that Sanders “did a little bit [Friday].”
The outlook is less clear for a couple of the team’s defensive linemen. Antonio Smith and Vance Walker were out of practice for a third straight day, leading to questionable tags for them as well on Friday’s final injury report of the week. Linebacker DeMarcus Ware was previously ruled out because of a back injury, so the Broncos will be down at least one player from their defense in Chicago.
Kubiak said that neither Ware nor Peyton Manning would make the trip with their teammates. They’ll stay in Denver and have their status for Week 12 against the Patriots updated next week.