Broncos safety P.J. Locke underwent back surgery shortly after the team’s playoff loss to the Bills, he announced in a 14-minute YouTube video.
The first episode of the personal documentary series, “My Breakthrough,” lays out that there were “no guarantees that P.J. would return to play football ever again” as one of the first NFL players to undergo spinal fusion surgery.
Locke shared a meeting with his surgeon, Dr. Chad Prusmack, on Feb. 10 after surgery. The degenerated discs in Locke’s L4 and L5 vertebrae led to bone-on-bone, and Prusmack fused the spine with a “cage” and screws.
“How I felt the first week after surgery. It’s like: ‘Oh, my God. I don’t know how I’m going to get better after this,’” Locke said in the video, via Kyle Frederickson of the Denver Gazette.
Five months later, though, Locke said he’s “got no pain levels.”
“Even the little bit of pain I do have from certain movements, it’s nothing compared to what I was dealing with during the season,” Locke said. “I feel like it’s been a miracle. I feel like it’s a breakthrough I’ve been praying for. It came out of a blessing that I wasn’t expecting.”
Locke was named the team’s Ed Block Courage Award winner in January. No one outside the locker room realized exactly what he was going through to get on the field for 15 games last season.
He played 1,000 defensive snaps in the regular season and all 76 snaps in the postseason loss.
Locke did not participate in the team’s offseason program as he continued his rehab. He is expected to compete for safety snaps after the Broncos signed Talanoa Hufanga in free agency.
When Sean Payton was head coach of the Saints in 2010, they drafted Jimmy Graham even though he had played only one year of college football. Graham, who played four years of college basketball at Miami, became one of the best tight ends in the NFL.
Now head coach of the Broncos, Payton would love to see history repeat itself with another college basketball player who was drafted to play tight end. This year the Broncos drafted Caleb Lohner, who played just 57 snaps of college football but showed flashes of tight end talent and also showed off his athletic ability while playing college basketball at Utah.
Payton said it would be incredible for the Broncos to get Lohner to be the kind of player Graham was.
“If it turns out like the last one did, then we’d be real excited,” Payton said, via DenverBroncos.com.
Lohner is 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds and has a similar athletic profile to Graham. Expecting him to have the kind of NFL career Graham had would be expecting too much, but it’s easy to see why Payton is excited about the possibilities that Lohner brings to Denver.
Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning watched his nephew, Texas quarterback Arch Manning, at the recent Manning Passing Academy and came away impressed — and also impressed by some of the other college quarterbacks on the field.
Manning told Pat McAfee that both Arch Manning and LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier showed off elite arms at the Manning camp.
“I’m excited to watch Arch play,” Manning said. “He threw the ball really well at the camp. He and Garrett Nussmeier at our three throwing expeditions really threw the ball well — all the quarterbacks throw the ball well. It’s impressive. They make throws that I can’t even think about making. Arch made a throw the other day that I’d have to hit the cutoff man to get the ball to the actual receiver.”
Peyton Manning also mentioned South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers as a standout at the Manning Passing Academy. Arch Manning is currently the betting favorite to be the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, followed by Penn State quarterback Drew Allar, then Nussmeier, then Sellers.
The Broncos returned to the playoffs last season for the first time since they won Super Bowl 50 and linebacker Alex Singleton is looking to that championship team as inspiration for the year to come.
Defense carried the Broncos for much of that season and the unit’s performance overwhelmed the Panthers in Levi’s Stadium to secure the title. The 2024 Broncos finished third in points allowed and seventh in yards allowed, so it was already a strength before adding players like linebacker Dre Greenlaw, safety Talanoa Hufanga and first-round cornerback Jahdae Barron this offseason.
Singleton told Zac Stevens of DNVR that he didn’t expect that investment in the defense and that he feels “it’s going to be special” enough to support setting some high goals for the year to come. Singleton said “if you’re not saying you want to be the best, I think it’s crazy” and he’s got his sights set on that Super Bowl crew.
“It’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘Let’s be better than the 2015 defense.’ Stuff where like that’s what we need to chase,” Singleton said.
The AFC has no shortage of contenders, but reaching the lofty goal that Singleton has set for the Broncos could put them in the mix for another February trip to Santa Clara.
Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain was the league’s best defensive player last season. The NFL honored him with the defensive player of the year award, and PFF recently dubbed Surtain “the most valuable non-QB in football.”
So, how does Surtain top what he did last season?
He has an idea, he told reporters at his camp Saturday.
“There’s always something out there to do better,” Surtain said, via video from Zac Stevens of DNVR Broncos. “I mean, why not get another one? Why not get more All-Pros further on into my career, but I think the main goal is to win a Super Bowl. At the end of the day, that’s what I play the game for is to win, so I think that’s the angle for me.”
The Broncos upgraded on defense in free agency after ranking seventh in yards and third in points on defense last season. They signed two former 49ers defenders, safety Talanoa Hufanga and inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw, and drafted cornerback Jahdae Barron with the 20th overall pick.
Greenlaw and Hufanga have played in a Super Bowl, so they know what it takes to get there.
“We added some key additions obviously in those guys,” Surtain said. “They’re going to come in and bring that winning atmosphere. They’ve been at Super Bowls. They know how to win at a high level. So, adding that to our team will only make our team greater.”
