early November Lisfranc injury in his left foot<\/a> that required surgery.<\/p>\n\u201cThey weren\u2019t going to let me go out there if it wasn\u2019t good,\u201d Dobbins told reporters Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing. A lot of people think I was rushing back, but it wasn\u2019t a rush back. It was what my body was doing and what my body was telling us. It was that close.\u201d<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t help but wonder what might have been had he received the green light.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could have got back,\u201d he said, pausing for a moment. \u201cYeah, I think I could have helped them pretty good yesterday. It was not in God\u2019s plans. Next year I will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbins hopes and indicated that he expects the return will be with the Broncos. He signed a one-year deal in June and is slated to hit free agency in March, but reiterated Monday he\u2019d love to be back in Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great time here in my short time here,\u201d Dobbins said. \u201cI think I will be here. Hopefully, I will. I\u2019m a Bronco for life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbins and the Broncos have several weeks to find common ground on what a future together looks like. They\u2019ll do so with the shared knowledge of his recovery from a foot injury that is the latest in a series of major setbacks the 27-year-old has had on the injury front in his career.<\/p>\n
Still, Dobbins was arguably the Broncos\u2019 best offensive option over the first half of the season, rushing for 772 yards in nine-plus games and powering a rushing attack that was among the league\u2019s best when he was healthy and fell off considerably after his injury against Las Vegas on Nov. 7.<\/p>\n
He returned to practice in the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s game and was a limited participant Wednesday through Friday last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were even discussions about me playing yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this organization is so good, so great to me and they want to do right by me. They decided \u2014 we decided \u2014 to not go out there. I wanted to be out there. I wish I could have. Stupid hip-drop tackle, however many weeks ago it was. That\u2019s what put me out. I can\u2019t control it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can control is how I come back. I think my resume speaks for itself and I will be back even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbins had surgery to repair the injury after it happened and said fairly quickly he thought he had a chance to get back before this season ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst it starts with God and blessing me with the ability to heal quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe work ethic, too. The trainers here are really good. The doctors, everybody was on the same page. I spent hours and hours and hours in the hyperbaric chamber and all kinds of stuff just trying to get back as fast as I could. I actually felt really good, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbins credited Broncos ownership, head coach Sean Payton and the rest of the staff as reasons he wanted to return. He said, too, he has unfinished business in mentoring Broncos rookie running back RJ Harvey.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday\u2019s loss was tough because we weren\u2019t successful on the ground,\u201d he said. \u201cI just tell him, \u2018Go back to the film and don\u2019t worry about what the outside noise is.\u2019 You\u2019re going to get better and I\u2019m going to help you with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I\u2019m not here. He\u2019s my rookie forever. I\u2019m attached to him and I\u2019m going to make sure he gets better. That\u2019s my job and I will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J.K. Dobbins came that close. The Broncos running back said he, the team and his doctors had conversations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3781],"tags":[69519,7,2858,45754,765,301,2863,187,3943,766,34717,165,6324,6,9,302,43282,8131,66],"class_list":["post-562944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-afc-championship","tag-basketball","tag-broncos","tag-broncos-ownership","tag-colorado","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-front-range","tag-j-k-dobbins","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-nuggets","tag-rj-harvey","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115964184010666481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}