{"id":263354,"date":"2026-01-20T18:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=263354"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:02:10","slug":"j-k-dobbins-injury-update-could-broncos-rb-play-against-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/20\/j-k-dobbins-injury-update-could-broncos-rb-play-against-patriots\/","title":{"rendered":"J.K. Dobbins Injury Update: Could Broncos RB Play Against Patriots?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Denver Broncos are fighting for the right to go to the Super Bowl, and running back J.K. Dobbins might be there to help out his team. A former second-round pick, the Ohio State product signed a one-year deal with the Broncos in the offseason and looked like a great fit early in the season. Through the first 10 games of the season, the six-year veteran recorded 772 yards and four touchdowns on just 153 yards. Unfortunately, he soon suffered a foot injury that placed him on the injured reserve.<\/p>\n<p>While this sidelined him for the rest of the regular season and last week&#8217;s win over the Buffalo Bills, he may return in the AFC Championship Game. Denver <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/2013335481438662927?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">activated his practice window<\/a>, which means he will be eligible to play against the New England Patriots. We&#8217;ll have to wait for Wednesday&#8217;s practice report to see how close he actually is to returning to the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" image-id=\"fwuQ9lOD6sow\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 8256px; aspect-ratio: 8256\/5504;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>J.K. Dobbins Injury Update: Broncos RB Returns to Practice<\/h2>\n<p>The Broncos could use Dobbins if they hope to defeat the New England Patriots. Led by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/20\/drake-maye-is-on-the-verge-of-making-history\/\" target=\"_self\">second-year quarterback Drake Maye<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/09\/27\/mike-vrabel-speaks-on-potential-rhamondre-stevenson-fumble-discipline\/\" target=\"_self\">head coach Mike Vrabel<\/a>, the Patriots went worst to first in their division and comfortably won both of their playoff games. Denver, meanwhile, lost quarterback Bo Nix to a broken ankle and will turn to longtime backup Jarrett Stidham. The Broncos will likely lean heavily on the run game, and Dobbins could play a big role if he&#8217;s able to suit up.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, injuries are not new for J.K. Dobbins. While he stayed healthy as a rookie, he missed the entire 2021 season and most of 2022 with knee injuries. He then tore his Achilles tendon in Week 1 of the 2023 season to end his tenure with the Baltimore Ravens. While he stayed somewhat healthy with the Chargers last year, he still only appeared in 13 games.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Isaiah J. Downing &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Denver Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins returned to practice and could return to face the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":263355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,15,5,6431],"tags":[7305,6497],"class_list":["post-263354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-broncos","category-patriots","category-nfl-teams","tag-denver-broncos-news","tag-j-k-dobbins"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263356,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263354\/revisions\/263356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}