Greg Dulcich, Nik Bonitto ruled out for Broncos, P.J. Locke questionable at Lions

The Broncos head to Detroit this weekend to play one of the best young tight ends in football facing more questions at the position on their own team.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Denver ruled tight end Greg Dulcich out for the Saturday night game. Consider that he’s done two stretches on injured reserve for repeated injuries to his right hamstring and that the Broncos activated him on a short week earlier this year only to see him aggravate the hamstring injury 11 snaps into a Week 6 contest at Kansas City.

What is surprising is that Dulcich is listed Thursday on the injury report as having both hamstring and foot issues.

The second-year tight end was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, so it’s unclear when the foot issue popped up.

“He looked great at practice today; he’s been running really well,” quarterback Russell Wilson said after Wednesday’s practice.

Denver may have slow-played Dulcich’s return some even without the foot issue, but now he is certainly not returning Saturday night and will hope to be back Christmas Eve against New England.

In the meantime, Denver cleared a spot on the 53-man roster Thursday by waiving outside linebacker Ronnie Perkins. That clears the way to promote tight end Lucas Krull from the practice squad.

Krull had been elevated from the practice squad three times this season, meaning he had to be given a full-time spot on the active roster in order to play again.

He’s become the Broncos’ best vertical threat at the position, despite the limited playing time. When he caught a 35-yarder for his first NFL reception Sunday at Los Angeles, he rose all the way to second among Denver’s tight ends this year in receiving yards.

Locke questionable. Elsewhere on the injury front, P.J. Locke (neck) returned to practice in a limited capacity Thursday but is listed as questionable to play against the Lions.

Locke said after the game Sunday against the Chargers that he had been hit in the throat at some point during the game and had trouble talking afterward.

Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto (knee) did not practice all week and was ruled out.

Everybody else listed earlier in the week — OLB Jonathon Cooper (ankle), RB Samaje Perine (knee), RG Quinn Meinerz (illness), DT Mike Purcell (rest) and TE Chris Manhertz (rest) — came off the injury report Thursday, meaning they are cleared to play.

Horse race. Denver’s three AFC games mean the most of its remaining four, but considering that six AFC teams enter the weekend at 7-6 and jockeying for playoff position, every win is going to be critical in terms of trying to crack a seven-team postseason field.

“In a horse race, you’ve got to have your blinders on and focus on what you can control,” Wilson said. “The best thing we can do is focus on us, have great fundamentals down the stretch. A lot of teams lose their fundamentals. Have great practices, have great study sessions. I think our team camaraderie is really special. I think we’re super, super tight. Offense, defense, special teams all together. We’re having a lot of fun doing this.”