{"id":645763,"date":"2026-01-01T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645763\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:09:08","slug":"2-players-can-return-from-ir-during-nfl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645763\/","title":{"rendered":"2 players can return from IR during NFL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos<\/a> might have to make some tough roster management decisions in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

NFL teams are allowed to designate up to eight players to return from injured reserve during the regular season. The Broncos<\/a> have already used six of those designations, including two for linebackers\u00a0Drew Sanders\u00a0(foot<\/a>) and Karene Reid (hamstring<\/a>). Neither player has been activated to the 53-man roster yet, but both are eligible.<\/p>\n

Even if Reid and Sanders are not eventually activated, they will still count against the team’s limit of eight designations, so the club has to weigh roster spots and return limits as it makes decisions.<\/p>\n

Another player who is eligible to return is tight end Lucas Krull (foot<\/a>). If Denver plans to maximize its regular season IR returns, decisions have to be made by Saturday before the team faces the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Once the NFL playoffs begin, the Broncos can bring back two more players from IR. Potential candidates could include center Luke Wattenberg\u00a0(who might be able to return for a potential\u00a0AFC title game<\/a>) and running back J.K. Dobbins (who might be able to return for a potential Super Bowl<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It’s unclear if safety Brandon Jones (pectoral<\/a>) has a season-ending injury. If not, he could be a third candidate to return in the postseason, but Denver’s playoff limit will be two IR returns.<\/p>\n

Social: Follow\u00a0Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos might have to make some tough roster management decisions in the coming weeks. NFL teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[247,265,825,5199,10886,232,791,324,231,258,2543,3911,1103,7,20842,1702,10537,10536,3891,2838,3883,248,267,246,88,6,35196,84,245,264,140,9,266,811,10534],"class_list":{"0":"post-645763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-american-football-conference","11":"tag-brandon","12":"tag-brandon-jones","13":"tag-broncos","14":"tag-co","15":"tag-conference","16":"tag-denver","17":"tag-denver-broncos","18":"tag-drew","19":"tag-drew-sanders","20":"tag-facebook","21":"tag-football","22":"tag-hub","23":"tag-jones","24":"tag-krull","25":"tag-lucas","26":"tag-lucas-krull","27":"tag-luke","28":"tag-luke-wattenberg","29":"tag-national","30":"tag-national-sports","31":"tag-neutral","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-nfl","34":"tag-nfl-hub","35":"tag-nfl-playoffs","36":"tag-overall","37":"tag-overall-neutral","38":"tag-sanders","39":"tag-sports","40":"tag-sports-news","41":"tag-twitter","42":"tag-wattenberg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115820479425635110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}