Updated Jan. 10, 2026, 4:19 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
Denver Broncos<\/a> linebacker Drew Sanders (foot<\/a>) returned to practice on Saturday, starting his 21-day window to be activated to the 53-man roster. If Sanders is not activated by Jan. 30, he will revert to IR for the rest of the season (only the Super Bowl would remain at that point in the season).<\/p>\n Denver held light practices on Friday and Saturday, but they are not required to release an injury report because they have a bye for the first round of the NFL playoffs after securing the AFC’s No. 1 seed with a 14-3 record.<\/p>\n Broncos<\/a> coach Sean Payton spoke to media members after Friday’s practice, and he said, “I think we see most everyone back” from injuries during the playoffs. Payton said linebacker Dre Greenlaw (hamstring<\/a>) is “getting there,” but he had no comment on running back J.K. Dobbins (foot<\/a>). Dobbins might be able to return if the team reaches the AFC Championship game.<\/p>\n The Broncos have four more designations open for players to return from IR, and tight end Lucas Krull (foot<\/a>) is a candidate to use one of them next week.<\/p>\n Broncos IR return designationsDL\u00a0Malcolm Roach\u00a0(activated)LB\u00a0Dre Greenlaw\u00a0(activated)LB\u00a0Garret Wallow\u00a0(activated, but later cut)OG\u00a0Ben Powers\u00a0(activated)LB\u00a0Karene Reid\u00a0(activated)LB\u00a0Drew Sanders\u00a0(not yet activated)OpenOpenOpenOpenNeed a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Broncos potential candidates to returnTE Lucas Krull<\/a> (eligible)C\u00a0Luke Wattenberg<\/a>\u00a0(possible\u00a0AFC title game return<\/a>)RB\u00a0J.K. Dobbins<\/a>\u00a0(possible\u00a0AFC title game return<\/a>)<\/p>\n Denver will learn its opponent and date<\/a> for the divisional round playoff game on Sunday or Monday. After the matchup is set, players will return to the team’s facility on either Monday or Tuesday, depending on whether the Broncos are scheduled to play on Saturday or Sunday next weekend.<\/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":"Updated Jan. 10, 2026, 4:19 p.m. MT Denver Broncos linebacker Drew Sanders (foot) returned to practice on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[95878,232,231,258,2426,7,6,95879,95880,95882,95887,97241,95886,97238,97237,95893,97240,97242,97239,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-668435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbroncos","16":"tag-sstsnbroncos","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagamerican-football-conference","19":"tag-tagben-powers","20":"tag-tagdenver-broncos","21":"tag-tagdre-greenlaw","22":"tag-tagdrew-sanders","23":"tag-tagfacebook","24":"tag-tagj-k-dobbins","25":"tag-tagluke-wattenberg","26":"tag-tagmalcolm-roach","27":"tag-tagnational-sports","28":"tag-tagnfl","29":"tag-tagnfl-hub","30":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","31":"tag-tagsports-news","32":"tag-tagtwitter","33":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115875757759101659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668435","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=668435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}