WASHINGTON IS ‘FULL GO’ THIS SEASON FOR BRONCOS

Pass rusher Demtri Washington said Thursday that he’s healthy and back on the field after a knee injury cost him most of last season.

“I feel great and it’s exciting to be out there,” Washington told reporters. “You’ll see me in my big, ugly brace, but there are no limitations.”

Washington entered last season as the favorite to replace pass rusher Curtis Weaver — who set the Mountain West career sack record and now plays for the Cleveland Browns — but he suffered a torn ACL at Air Force in the second game of the season and missed the rest of the year.

Washington, a 6-foot-3, 270-pound native of Solana Beach, California, joined the Broncos as a three-star recruit in 2018 after he starred on offense and defense at Santa Fe Christian High. As a redshirt freshman in 2019, he appeared in all 14 games and recorded 4.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss.

He lined up as a traditional defensive end in the two games he played last fall — mostly because of the return of veteran pass rusher Sam Whitney, who decided not to join the team’s eight super seniors in returning for an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA as a result of the pandemic.

With Whitney gone, Washington could move back to Edge (formerly known as STUD) this season, but when asked Thursday which position he’ll play, he simply replied, “we’ll see.” There’s a good chance he’ll open the season at Edge, though, given the emergence of defensive end Shane Irwin, who led the Broncos with 6.5 sacks last season.