In the midst of an eight-game winning streak, the Denver Broncos and their fans have a lot to be thankful for. The Broncos are coming back from their much-needed bye week in Week 13, and they're doing so with a lot of reinforcements on the injury front.
But beyond the expected players coming back from injury, which is already exciting enough, Broncos head coach Sean Payton delivered an injury update that is certain to blow every fan of the team away.
Nobody expected running back JK Dobbins to return this season, but Payton certainly made it sound like that is a possibility.
Sean Payton says Broncos RB JK Dobbins could still return for the 2025 season
“Yes. It wouldn’t be soon, but that (JK Dobbins returning later this season) has a chance to happen.”
- Sean Payton (via Broncos PR)
Based on the nature of Dobbins's injury, it felt like it might be a stretch to think he could even return if the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl. The idea of him making it back for the playoff run, or even before that, would seem to be bordering on insanity.
The loss of Dobbins was a crushing blow for the Broncos based on the way he played this season. Obviously, Dobbins has a history of injuries, but he'd been awesome for the Broncos through the first 10 games of the season and really the only consistent source of offense for the Broncos.
He broke the Broncos' streak of more than 35 straight games with nobody rushing for 100 yards. He had 772 yards on the ground and was averaging a career-high 77.2 yards per game, giving the Broncos a great combination of vision, physicality, and field-flipping burst.
It's extremely rare that Sean Payton would offer anything when it comes to the injury department and any updates that he would give to the media. There have even been times where Payton gets a little upset at the podium if anyone even tries a little bit to extract information out of him on the injury front. For him to offer this information out there about JK Dobbins is significant, and may speak to the fact that the Broncos feel really good about whatever plan they have in place to get Dobbins back on the field.
And nobody would have expected that to be this season, but that now feels like a realistic possibility.