By Luca Evans

Copyright denverpost

The dream glowed, even in the dead of night. There were no field lights out at Hollywood Park in Fort Lauderdale, where J.K. Dobbins met Nick Hicks at 9:30 p.m. to take himself to task. So Hicks would hop in his truck and turn the ignition, coating Dobbins’ cuts in the soft glow of purring Ford F-150 headlights.

It was the only way for Dobbins to see what was in front of him. He always wanted to see what was in front of him.

What’s up, I’m J.K. — what are we doing? Dobbins introduced himself, the first time he worked with Hicks. What’s our plan like? Let’s go.

“It was just like, ‘Alright, man, hold on one second,’” Hicks remembered, a longtime trainer in Florida. “‘Let me get the cones out of my truck.’”

They did pre-draft training six days a week for three hours a day back in 2020, Dobbins trying to work himself into form after an injury. Soon, Hicks came to realize this then-22-year-old was the most intense athlete he’d ever worked with. Soon, Hicks came to realize why, too.

Dobbins ran for 2,740 yards and 35 touchdowns as a junior in high school, trying to outrun his father Lawrence Dobbins’ legendary status in La Grange, Texas. He wanted to break Ezekiel Elliott’s marks at Ohio State, and wound up breaking the Buckeyes’ single-season rushing record in 2019. He wanted to turn Ray Rice’s No. 27 into his own in Baltimore, and ran for nine touchdowns and six yards a carry as a rookie Raven.

Dobbins told Hicks, on the offseason grass in Fort Lauderdale, that he wanted to topple records. And win Super Bowls.

“He wants to be remembered,” Hicks said. “To be this guy that – people sit back and say, ‘Damn. I remember that J.K. Dobbins.’”

Eventually, the headlights shut off. Dobbins, a Bronco five years later, knows darkness, and his legs know pain. This is not the same J.K. Dobbins who could fly and vaporize anyone in an opposing jersey through whatever hole he chose. He can never be 22 again, as surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache said this offseason, the man who stitched Dobbins back together after a blown knee in 2021 and a blown Achilles in 2023.

“Athletically,” Dobbins reflected, “I would probably be nuts, if I didn’t get those injuries.”

Now 26 years old and the head of a revamped Broncos backfield, though, Dobbins feels he’s a better football player for the pain of the last few years. A better man, too. He smiles with his eyes when he says it.

He was not the rare running back who’s immortal. He is the rare back who’s survived.

Two games into 2025, Dobbins has cemented himself as the opener and closer in the Denver backfield. He has run for two touchdowns, ranks 11th in the NFL in rushing yards, and has brought a veteran’s savvy to Sean Payton’s offense. He’s set for a head-on collision Sunday with his former Los Angeles Chargers, who helped resuscitate his career last year and then left him dangling in free agency.

The matchup is “100%” in the back of Dobbins’ mind, as Hicks said. The intensity hasn’t changed, even if the path has.

“You blow your knee out, you blow your Achilles, it’s almost like a death sentence,” Broncos running backs coach Lou Ayeni told The Denver Post. “But for this kid, it’s just a start. Like, it’s just part of his story.

“And he’s motivated to show people — he’s back to being one of those top-end backs in the NFL.”

The Broncos needed a running back this offseason. Jonathan Cooper knew a guy.

Dobbins was hitting the open market after a 905-yard, nine-touchdown season with the Chargers, and his former Ohio State teammate wasted no time playing recruiter. The Broncos OLB hit Dobbins up. Dobbins hit him up. Interest was mutual through March’s free-agent frenzy.

“I was trying to get him out here,” Cooper grinned, “the whole entire time.”

Dobbins told Cooper that he wanted to be a Bronco. The process wouldn’t be that easy.

Denver reached out to Dobbins on Day 1 of free agency, and the two sides slow-played it, a source told The Post back in June. Dobbins wanted a certain price point and was in no rush, figuring he could dictate his market based on teams’ running back needs come training camp. The Chargers, meanwhile, signed longtime Steelers starter Najee Harris on the first day of free agency, and took North Carolina star back Omarion Hampton with their first-round pick in April’s draft. Dobbins seemed pointed for Denver.

Then, in late April, the Chargers slapped Dobbins with a rare unrestricted free-agent tag, meaning he’d have to sign with another team before July 22 or be forced to accept a year’s salary slightly over $1 million to stay in Los Angeles.

It blew up Dobbins’ plan. And accelerated his timeline. And left a bad taste.

“That was a little weird,” Dobbins said in June.

The Broncos, meanwhile, took stock of their RB room after taking UCF’s RJ Harvey in the second round in April. They knew Dobbins’ talent. The back went for 96 yards on 25 carries in the Chargers’ win over Denver last October. They evaluated his injury history. And, eventually — with a one-year deal worth up to $5.25 million in incentives if Dobbins topped 1,200 yards, a source said — they welcomed him.

“We knew if there’s a chance to get this guy at some point,” Ayeni said, “we want him.”

Dobbins officially arrived as a Bronco June 11, the second-to-last day of the team’s minicamp. He made the public rounds. And in between, he spent an entire day locked in a meeting room with Ayeni, poring over the Broncos’ playbook.

“He wore me out,” Ayeni smiled. “I think we were up here forever.”

In his first public comments in Denver, Dobbins established himself as a resource for Harvey. And he took quickly to Denver’s outside-zone emphasis in camp, a scheme that lends itself well to Dobbins’ natural vision for between-the-tackles cutbacks. Dobbins missed the entirety of OTAs and most of minicamp. And yet it didn’t feel like the veteran actually missed a beat, as reserve offensive lineman Frank Crum said.

“His playstyle, and what he brings to the table, meshes real well with our O-line play,” Crum told The Post. “So, I dunno — he’s a special back. And it felt like he didn’t come later in the year, you know what I mean?”

He is not a home run hitter by nature anymore. Not quite the same back who averaged 5.8 yards a carry across four injury-plagued years with the Baltimore Ravens. Dobbins is simply a “smart football player,” as Ayeni put it. Efficient with his runs. Avoids big hits. Plays with leverage, and plays behind his blocks.

He’s a natural complement to Harvey, whose potential burns within every twitch of his massive quads but who sometimes seeks to turn corners that aren’t there. Dobbins was the closer for Denver in Week 1, running for 37 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter of a win over the Titans. He was the opener in Week 2, running for 28 yards on three straight carries to start the game.

“When he’s healthy, he’s top-three running backs in the league,” Cooper told The Post. “And I don’t even want to give him that, because I feel like that’s low. But, nah, seriously. I think he’s the best – he’s one of the best in the league when he’s healthy. And that’s the main thing for him.

“Because, I mean, when he’s on, you can see he’s almost impossible to stop,” Cooper continued. “And his career’s only getting started.”

In summer 2021, Hicks hosted a workout with Dobbins and a group of NFL backs, the trainer carrying a pad for contact drills. Former Minnesota Viking Jerick McKinnon came up and threw Hicks a little shiver. Former Giants back Matt Breida came up and gave Hicks an elbow.

Waiting, Dobbins turned to one of Hicks’ media guys with the training facility Per4orm Sports.

“Watch this,” Dobbins said, as Hicks remembers.

The then-Ravens back hit a jump-cut, lowered his shoulder, and bowled Hicks up to heaven and down to earth in a video that’s now been circulated to every corner of the internet.

This was not the first time this happened. Dobbins once ran over Hicks so brutally in an open-field drill that he split the trainer’s lip open.

“He’s probably the most freak athlete that I’ve worked with,” Hicks said, “in my 15 years of training athletes.”

When the 5-foot-10 Dobbins first arrived at Ohio State, they called him “Meatball,” as former La Grange High offensive coordinator Will Kates remembered. This was the first chip placed on Dobbins’ shoulders, long before life threw him plenty more. He wasn’t very big.

“But I always felt like there was a 6-foot-7 guy,” Kates joked, “trapped inside of him.”

Dobbins made one thing clear from the minute he arrived in Denver: He would not back down. In one simple pass-pro drill during training camp, he nearly sent an assistant flying by smacking his protection pad.

In late July, on the seventh day of camp, boisterous defensive tackle Malcolm Roach stuffed Dobbins on a particularly-intense day of camp and let him know about it. Two periods later, Dobbins read Denver’s front perfectly on a carry and jump-cut through a wide-open hole. And the running back circled right back to Roach and the rest of the Broncos’ defensive linemen.

“Don’t start overplaying it, ‘cause that’s what’s gonna happen!” Dobbins barked at them.

“I feel like that’s what we needed,” Cooper reflected, months later. “Somebody who can talk with us, and bring that kinda edge to the offense.”

“You want your back to be a little mean,” offensive lineman Crum smiled, “and have a little fight in him.”

Dobbins has more than a little. And more than a little, perhaps, will be directed back at the Chargers on Sunday.

“Oh, yeah,” Dobbins nodded, asked if there was a chip on his shoulder against Los Angeles. “There’s always a chip on my shoulder, though, whenever I play.

“But this week, yeah. I want to go out with a win.”

Father Time rarely loses. The list of productive running backs who’ve returned from an Achilles tear — much less torn every lateral ligament in their knees multiple times — is miniscule. Dobbins recognizes he’s not quite the type anymore, as Hicks said, to stretch every play to the sideline.

But he’s determined to return to the dominance he once planned for.

“My legacy — everything’s still in front of me,” Dobbins told The Post in the locker room Thursday. “Like, last year, I had a thousand total yards, right? And that was the first year off my Achilles.”

From a nearby trash can, cleaning out his shoes, stalwart left tackle Garett Bolles overheard. And chimed in.

“This year,” Bolles cracked, “he’s trying to go for 1,500.”

Are you? Dobbins was asked.

“Yeah,” Dobbins affirmed, smiling. “Yeah, of course. Like, I ain’t out here to go for 800 yards.”

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