ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A fluky event won’t be enough to derail J.K. Dobbins this season.
Even if the Denver Broncos running back is on the wrong end of a hip-drop tackle, like the takedown that ended his 2025 campaign in Denver after 10 games, he insists he has a contingency plan in place.
“I’m going to be like Elasti-Boy or Elasti-Girl,” Dobbins said after the team’s first full training camp practice Friday, comparing himself to some version of the endlessly flexible superhero. “I’ll be over there bouncing back up from it. Like, if I get hit-dropped tackled, I’ll just like … touch my head to the back of my foot and get back up.”
J.K. Dobbins makes an important pinky promise to Broncos fans
Nick Kosmider
Dobbins re-signed with the Broncos in March on a two-year deal that includes $8 million guaranteed and could reach up to $20 million with incentives. The agreement came on the heels of his blistering performance through the first 10 games last season, when he rushed for 772 yards — the fifth-most in the league at the time — and gave Denver a consistently explosive element in the backfield the offense had been missing. The other part of Dobbins’ story during his first season in Denver, of course, was the Lisfranc foot injury that occurred during the aforementioned tackle by former Raiders defensive end Tyree Wilson. It forced Dobbins to miss the final nine games of the season, including the playoffs. It was another setback for a running back who has missed at least seven games because of injury in four of the past five seasons and hasn’t played more than 13 games in a campaign since his rookie year with the Ravens in 2020.
The injuries have left scars, required endless hours of rehab and impacted his earning power during the prime years of Dobbins’ career. What they haven’t done is quell the 27-year-old’s steadfast belief that his best football is still in front of him — and that it’s coming in 2026. The veteran’s confidence in his performance and availability in the season to come is such that Dobbins offered to back up a bold guarantee he made Friday with “a pinky promise.”
“A lot of people always get mad when I say the injuries are over, because I said it last year, but that one was pretty fluky,” Dobbins said Friday, his grin rarely dissipating as he began drawing a picture of the upcoming season, his seventh in the NFL. “This year there won’t be any, and there won’t be anything for anyone to say about my injuries because I’m going to play all 17 games and I’m going to give my team everything I’ve got for all 17 games, and I will be there for all 17 games. I can pinky promise all of you right now.”
Dobbins, when pressed about how he could make such a guarantee given the violent nature of the sport — and his position in particular — as well as his injury history, pointed to his newfound ability to “do the splits” for the first time since he was young, the result of increased flexibility work. He said he has also trimmed down to his college weight, which he believes will help keep him fresh for a full-season run and, the Broncos hope, a postseason to follow.
He also cited his faith.
“I prayed on it,” he said. “The storm can’t last forever. I’m from Texas, born in Houston, and we get hurricanes, right? The storm can be long. It can be very dangerous. It can be dark for a long time. You don’t know when you’re going to get power. But they never last forever.”
Dobbins cited his major injuries — an ACL and MCL tear in 2021; an Achilles tear in 2023; last season’s Lisfranc: all on his left leg — and reasoned that he’s already fulfilled any “bad things come in threes” superstitions. He said whoever is poking needles into his voodoo doll has run out of places to jab.
“I keep saying it, and people think I’m crazy, but I’m going to be No. 1 (in rushing) and I’m going to keep it there for the whole year,” Dobbins said.
Dobbins, speaking to the media for the first time since re-signing in March, said he was “born to be a Bronco” and never considered any other possibility in free agency than remaining in Denver. The team wanted Dobbins to remain a Bronco despite last season’s setback because for as much as his career has been impacted by serious injuries, it has featured an equal number of impressive comebacks. He rushed for more than 900 yards in 13 games during his lone season with the Chargers in 2024 following his Achilles recovery. He was on pace before the injury last season to become the Broncos’ top single-season rusher since Clinton Portis in 2003. His average rush of 5.2 yards across the course of his career is the third-highest among running backs since 2020, behind only Miami’s De’Von Achane (5.6) and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs (5.3).
“Everywhere he’s been, he’s been a dynamic running back,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton said. “To do what he’s been able to do coming off injuries, I know people want to knock him for the injuries, but I would say it’s almost the opposite. His ability to recover is also crazy because every time, he’s come back stronger than he was before. That’s what he’s expecting and that’s what we’re expecting and it’s exciting to see.”
The Broncos’ reasons for re-signing Dobbins on a considerable deal in free agency went beyond optimism that he’ll be healthy for a full season. They drafted running back Jonah Coleman in the fourth round and believe RJ Harvey is poised for a leap forward in his second season. They believe they will be better prepared to weather a theoretical absence from their No. 1 back. But the bottom line is that Dobbins’ impact during his first season with the Broncos — on the field and as a magnetic presence in the locker room — was too great not to bring him back. Dobbins believes his story is still being written, one that won’t be defined by injuries, and the franchise has expressed the same belief.
“There’s a lot to him. He was a big part of why we won 14 games last year,” head coach Sean Payton said of Dobbins, who helped race Denver to an 8-2 record while he was on the field. “Sometimes that can get lost. The narrative is certainly that he’s been injured, and yet what we were able to do when he was healthy had a lot to do with where we ended up. It was unfortunate, (but) I believe in the player a lot.”
