The Broncos are trending toward being a healthy football team in the AFC divisional round of the playoffs.
Head coach Sean Payton said as much Friday after the team wrapped up what he described as an OTA-style practice.
“Yeah, I think you’ll see most everyone back,” Payton said.
That response was to a question specifically about inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who missed the Broncos’ final two regular-season games with a hamstring injury and was one of the only players not on the field during a brief portion of Friday’s workout open to reporters.
Among the others who weren’t spotted: Tight end Nate Adkins (knee) and defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers.
Franklin-Myers, Payton said, “is having a baby. Well, he’s not having a baby.”
Safety P.J. Locke (leg) was on the field and so, too, were left tackle Garett Bolles (ankle) and center Alex Forsyth (ankle), each of whom left the season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers but returned later in the game.
Could that also include running back J.K. Dobbins, who has been on injured reserve since mid-November with a Lisfranc injury in his foot?
“No comments on him yet, but he’s getting close,” Payton said.
When Dobbins was first injured, a source close to him said the best-case scenario for his return was if the Broncos made the Super Bowl. Since then, Dobbins has told people in the building he thinks he can be back sooner and Payton hinted at a potential postseason return without saying exactly when that might happen.
What’s not clear when Payton said “most everyone” will be back is whether he also meant players who are currently on injured reserve.
A quick rundown of return eligibility for those players: Dobbins and tight end Lucas Krull (foot) are eligible to return at any time. Safety Brandon Jones (pectoral) is first eligible after this weekend’s wild-card action, while center Luke Wattenberg (shoulder) must miss the divisional round but is eligible to return for a potential AFC title game week.
None of those eligibility deadlines necessarily means the player will be ina position to return, though a source said Krull is ready to start practicing as soon as Wednesday and Payton has previously said Wattenberg’s injury was “right at” four weeks, indicating he could be back when first eligible.
Schedule options. Payton on Friday said he thinks Denver is in line to play Saturday, Jan. 17, if either of the AFC wild-card visitors wins Sunday.
If No. 6 Buffalo wins at No. 3 Jacksonville or the No. 7 Los Angeles Chargers win at No. 2 New England, Payton posited, the Broncos are in line to play Saturday of divisional weekend.
If the higher seeds win both games, Denver will play the winner of Monday night’s No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh. That game would be played Sunday, Jan. 18.
“It’s hard to gauge how these other games are going to go, not having really spent much time looking at New England,” Payton said. “(We’ve) seen Jacksonville. So it’s one of those where you just, you’re working while you watch them. You’re working on each plan.”
Lively Friday session. Payton said Friday’s practice was mostly “good on good,” rather than trying to anticipate which opponent Denver might play next weekend.
He told his team he didn’t want the session to just be a time-filler. To that end, the coach had plenty to work through.
Asked if the Broncos intentionally played conservatively offensively the last two weeks of the season against backup quarterbacks, Payton said, “I’d like to say that, but obviously you guys know me well enough. We’re going to have to play better. I’d love to say that we pulled a bunch back, but the tape from last week wasn’t real good offensively. It wasn’t great at Kansas City, either. Good enough to win that game. But no, we’ve got to be sharper.
“As we get to these next games, here, we’re going to see good teams that can score and good defenses,” Payton continued. “That’s why I said to the team, ‘Look, I don’t want to go out and just fill in today. Fill in time.’ I’ll be honest with you, our third-down numbers, both sides of the ball, bother me. We can improve there. These games are going to come down to two-minute. I want those to be competitive. And I want to work red zone offense and defense.”
Added right tackle Mike McGlinchey, “It was good to get the body right, get some treatment and workouts in during the week and then today was a good, clean day to kind of knock the rust off. We got some long individual work in and then compete a little bit. It was good.”
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