Broncos placing RB J.K. Dobbins on injured reserve with foot injury, source says

Parker Gabriel, The Denver Post on Nov 15, 2025

Published in Football

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DENVER — The Broncos are going to be without running back J.K. Dobbins for a good chunk of the remaining regular season at minimum and perhaps more.

Denver’s top running back is out a minimum of four games as the team plans to put him on injured reserve Saturday with a foot injury, a source confirmed to The Denver Post. But he could well miss the rest of the season.

Dobbins, a source said, has a Lisfranc injury that is going to require surgery to repair. The Broncos and Dobbins spent the better part of the past week gathering several opinions on how to proceed before ultimately settling on surgery.

Dobbins, who injured his foot last week against Las Vegas, is technically first eligible to return Week 16 against Jacksonville.

The 26-year-old has been the Broncos’ most consistent offensive playmaker this season. He has also dealt with a list of major injuries in his career.

He tore several ligaments in his knee at the end of his rookie season in 2020 for Baltimore and missed the entire 2021 season as he worked to return. That led to Dobbins playing eight games in 2022. Then he tore his Achilles the first game of the 2023 season and missed the remainder of that year.

He gained 1,000-plus scrimmage yards in 2024 for the Los Angeles Chargers, but missed four games late in the year due to a knee injury that required an injured reserve placement.

“People say I have injury issues, but I don’t. I’ve had two major injuries,” Dobbins said earlier this season. “That’s it. It’s not like I’m rolling ankles or — it’s not like I’m injury-prone. It’s just the injuries that I’ve had have been unfortunate. They’re God-given, actually, because, like, a torn knee, I can’t help that. I can’t help that. And then a torn Achilles, that’s something I can’t control either. …

“If you think about it, I don’t think many people could still play at the level I’m playing at now if they’ve had those two. God chose me for those. I don’t go out there afraid of that. Those were just unfortunate.”

Dobbins has been remarkably resilient in his career — he recently said “storms are beautiful” in talking about his approach to handling adversity — but now he faces another storm.

Dobbins entered Week 11 with a team-high 722 rushing yards, tied for fifth-most in the NFL, and averaging 5.0 yards per carry for a Denver offense that’s found ways to run the ball among the best in the NFL but has been inconsistent in the passing game.

The Broncos are ninth in the NFL in rushing yards per game and 18th in passing through their first 10 games. They’ll now have to try to build on an 8-2 start and a seven-game winning streak Sunday against Kansas City — and for the next month-plus at least — without Dobbins.