With the brutal news after the Denver Broncos divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills of Bo Nix being done for the year with an ankle injury, the need to get healthy for the AFC Championship Game became a critical need. Two names are on that list for us to watch for: J.K. Dobbins and Luke Wattenberg. With Nix out, those first two are probably code red needs for this game. Surprisingly, both wide receivers Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant were at practice today as well.
Great news there on all injury
fronts. First, Dobbins was practicing today for the first time since injuring his foot in Week 10. The rehab time on that felt like a iffy maybe for the Super Bowl at the time, but he’s well ahead of schedule and seemingly back at the most critical time for this football team. Wattenberg’s status is a little more questionable as the team did open his 21-day practice window today, but I should note he was the only guy of the four who was a full participant.
Though, when asked, head coach Sean Payton was adamant that he would not comment on any player’s expected return time from injury. So practicing is a good sign, but we won’t know if they are game-ready until Friday or even possibly until 90 minutes before kickoff with the gameday inactive report.
Here is your full practice report for Wednesday.
Denver Broncos Injury Report
New England Patriots Injury Report
BOLD – Indicates change in status; NIR- Indicates not injury related; *- Team conducted a walk-through / report is an estimation
STATUS DEFINITIONS: Did not participate (DNP); Limited: means less than 100 percent of a player’s normal repetitions; Full—100 percent of player’s normal repetitions; Out: will not play; Doubtful: Unlikely to play; Questionable: Uncertain to play
