As his 11-snap appearance against the Los Angeles Rams wrapped up Aug. 24, Broncos tight end Jake Butt felt nearly back.

Back to helping the Broncos’ offense.

Back to filling a reliable pass-catching role.

And back to feeling good about his surgically-repaired left ACL.

“I thought I had turned the corner,” Butt said. “It had been a couple of weeks where I hadn’t had any trouble and I thought I had put out some good (game) tape against the Rams. I was feeling really, really good.”

But on the Broncos’ flight back to Denver following the game, that really good feeling disappeared.

“I felt the same (soreness) I had been dealing with and I knew we had to go in there and clean it up and fix it,” Butt said in a recent interview with The Denver Post.

Surgery resulted in 30-40 percent of his meniscus (the cartilage that serves as a shock absorber between the shin and thigh bones) being lost as Butt was sent to injured reserve for the third time in as many NFL seasons. Although eligible to be one of the Broncos’ two designated to return players, he has yet to practice.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Butt said. “I had always been a quick healer and I had always taken so much pride in being available, being a guy the team could count on to not only play in the game, but get a big first down on third-and-8. They could call my number. It had become my identity — somebody my coaches and players could rely on.

“These past three years, my identity has been stripped from me to where I’m now ‘The Injured Guy.’ ”

Butt tore his right ACL as a sophomore at Michigan (spring 2014) and in his final college game (Jan. 1, 2017). He spent his rookie year on the Broncos’ injured reserve and was on the way to becoming the team’s feature tight end last year until his October left ACL tear in practice.

After rehabilitating during the Broncos’ offseason program, Butt was on the field to start training camp. But he lasted less than a week — knee soreness sidelined him from July 21 to Aug. 11. But he did practice leading into the Rams game before hitting a roadblock.

“It was a pretty significant clean-up (surgery),” Butt said. “I still have over half of the meniscus and I had similar surgery after my first ACL. They repaired the meniscus after (after his sophomore season), I sat out 6-8 weeks and played spring ball and had two healthy years and played some of the best football of my life. I’m really hoping the same thing happens here.”

Butt said he is running routes and “doing everything I need to do with the trainers. If my number is called, I’ll be ready.”

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“I’m just appreciative of them standing with me and giving me the opportunity to get healthy,” Butt said. “This recovery has been brutal for me. It’s been a little bit slower than I would have liked. … (The Broncos) could have easily (released me) and that was definitely something in the back of my mind and causing a lot of stress and worry. Those nine months (in 2018) when I was healthy, what I did in the spring, in camp, in the first three games, I proved to myself what I can do in this league and the people (in the front office).”

If Butt doesn’t play this year, he will enter the final year of his rookie contract in 2020 with only three games of regular-season experience.

“I want to be out there and it’s really, really frustrating because I’m doing everything I can to be out there,” he said. “This (stinks). I love this game. It’s frustrating as (heck) but I’m fully confident this is my last surgery. If it’s for this year or next year, I’m doing my best to be as close to 100 percent as possible.”