Owen Daniels is headed to the injured reserve with a designation for return. Daniels injured his right fibula during Sunday night's loss at San Francisco.
"Obviously we'll miss O.D.," head coach Gary Kubiak said of Daniels. "He's a big part of what we do offensively. We've got challenges offensively."
Kubiak said Garrett Graham is now the starting tight end, and rookie Ryan Griffin will get more playing time in Daniels' absence.
"He's very versatile," Kubiak said. "Garrett plays pretty good on the run game. He's always been a threat in the pass game. He's somebody that's grown up a lot."
As for Griffin, Kubiak said the rookie has played primarily on special teams, but he'll soon "play a lot of football" and "he's got to play well."
To take the roster spot, the team signed tight end Jake Byrne off San Diego's practice squad.
Byrne was on the Texans practice squad last January during the playoffs, and was cut by the team during the preseason. Kubiak said Byrne could be ready to play as soon as this Sunday for the Week 6 game with Saint Louis.
"He's kind of a line of scrimmage guy," Kubiak said. "We know he can do some of that for us. The biggest thing getting him back was the fact that we know he can get ready real quick. He knows our system from camp, so it's not a big adjustment."
