Broncos safety P.J. Locke announces he had spinal surgery after 2025 wild-card game

As his surgeon reached for his drawer to pull out a reflex hammer P J Locke sat on a medical practitioner s office in mid-February visibly nervous Your favorite test Dr Chad Prusmack a neurological consultant for the Broncos notified Locke Relax He tapped Locke s left leg He tapped Locke s right leg They twitched Prusmack grinned up at the Broncos safety giving him a fist-bump And Locke clapped beaming the career-altering stitches on his lower back vindicated It work again Locke cracked That expletive was dead last time On Jan exactly one day after Locke roamed for snaps in the Broncos wild-card loss to the Bills the -year-old safety visited Prusmack s office for an MRI As detailed by Prusmack in a -minute YouTube video issued Tuesday on Locke s YouTube channel imaging revealed that one of the discs in Locke s spine was totally degenerated He has bone on bone Prusmack pointed looking at a scan from January There s supposed to be a disc in between these The outcome as written in the video s description Locke underwent offseason spinal fusion surgery a procedure done to connect two vertebrae in the back It s a massive improvement for the Broncos secondary depth as Locke was seen at minicamp not participating in group periods the reason now revealed Locke however is expected to be a full participant come the Broncos training camp in late July a source familiar with the situation stated The Denver Post He was a vital piece of the Broncos secondary in the fifth-year defensive back playing the second-most snaps of any athlete on the defense save now-departed linebacker Cody Barton Locke though struggled in that season-ending loss to the Bills beat on a crucial and controversial touchdown grab from Buffalo receiver Tyler Johnson Quietly as detailed in a conversation between Prusmack and Locke in the video the Broncos safety was dealing with pain in his right hip before the surgery And Locke hinted that a pre-surgery reflex test was a determining answer for him to get the operation Even the little bit of pain I do have from certain movements Locke noted it ain t nothing compared to what I was dealing with during the season In the video Locke is seen throughout various stages of his rehab in one section grinding through mobility exercises in a pool Related Articles Broncos buying spree near possible Burnham Yard stadium site includes DHA land with housing-related strings attached Broncos stock document Who s up who s down among young talent after offseason events Renck vs Evans Which offseason addition is most of essential to Broncos success Broncos think they re primed to master one of NFL s toughest tasks Assembling dominant defense built to last Broncos Mailbag When is Russell Wilson definitively officially off Denver s books I just feel like I m kicking and I ain t really moving Locke notified the camera before an exercise floating on a board and propelling himself using his legs So I don t know it s like I gotta intentionally tell myself man to keep kicking because my legs just wanna die out The surgery isn t a career black mark A analysis by Wolters Kluwer Healthcare revealed that a majority of NFL players who d undergone spinal-fusion surgery for herniated discs returned to play with little difference in their performance after the operation And Lions defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike has retuned and played productive football after missing the season due to spinal-fusion surgery Locke enters training camp coming off his own operation looking for a pathway to snaps in a crowded safeties room after the Broncos signing of Talanoa Hufanga I feel like man it s just been a miracle Locke explained in the video of his recovery I feel like it s been a breakthrough that I ve been praying for Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis