About 25 minutes into the Broncos’ training camp session Monday, Eyioma Uwazurike trotted into an NFL practice for the first time in more than a year.
The defensive lineman learned earlier in the morning that the NFL was reinstating him after a year-plus suspension for violations of the NFL’s gambling policy.
Uwazurike, a 2022 fourth-round draft pick out of Iowa State, rejoined Denver’s 90-man roster and spent most of the rest of practice working on the side field, where injured and rehabilitating players typically do conditioning work.
“We’re in that period of time where there’s a lot of mistakes being made relative to the gambling and the gambling policy,” Payton said. “I think the league and the communication they provided for him, we’re grateful for. … He was out a year. Our job now is that we’re slow to get him ready back because he’s missed quite a bit. But he was very remorseful and I think that played a big part of it. I think he understands, certainly, the mistake he made, and he’s really appreciative to be back here with this team.”
Uwazurike was originally suspended in late July last year, and an August criminal complaint filed in Iowa said he bet not only on college games at Iowa State but also on five Broncos games during his rookie season in 2022. Criminal charges in Iowa were dropped earlier this year, however, because of problems with the manner in which the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation had gathered evidence against him and others. That started to set the stage for his return to play, though he wasn’t eligible for reinstatement consideration until July 24 at the earliest.
“I am grateful to the Denver Broncos and the National Football League for giving me the opportunity to resume my NFL career,” Uwazurike said in a statement distributed by the team Monday afternoon. “I’ve learned from this situation and taken steps to ensure it will never happen again. It is a privilege to play in the NFL, and I hope others can learn from my mistake. I will not take this second chance for granted and am fully committed to making a positive impact with the Broncos both on and off the field.”
Payton said Uwazurike has had to do extra work and programming with regards to the NFL’s gambling policies as part of his path to reinstatement. Now comes the next part: trying to get him back in shape as a football player.
“He went through a pretty extensive physical and he’s working on Field 3 quite a bit,” Payton said. “I just think you’ve got to be careful a little bit of putting him back out there right away. He’ll be in the meetings, of course, now. He’ll be in everything. He’s here on our roster. But I do think we’ve got to look further out and say, ‘When do we expect him to play in a preseason game?’”
Overall, Denver still likes the potential of the 26-year-old, who appeared in eight games as a rookie.
“He’s big, he’s explosive, he’s strong,” Payton said. “He’s got those traits to push the pocket and he’s young. We see him as ‘N’ candidate to play inside. We’re glad this worked out for him.”
Installs continue into Week 3. Payton said the Broncos are still in the part of training camp where they’re installing new parts of the play book almost every day. That wasn’t the case Monday in a non-padded practice after an off-day. But the next three days will be heavy learning days.
“(Tuesday) we’ll install short yardage — third-and-1, fourth-and-1 — and then I believe Wednesday is a second round of third down for defense and offense coming,” Payton said. “Thursday we have a second round of red zone defense and offense coming. … Then the final day is a focus on the (Indianapolis) Colts.”
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