ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Ja'Wuan James, whom the Denver Broncos made the highest-paid right tackle in the league when he signed last March, said Tuesday that he has dealt with torn ligaments in his knee all season.
In his first public comments since he was injured in September, James said he had suffered tears to the MCL as well as the meniscus in separate games over the past four months, and tore scar tissue as well.
"Hopefully we can get this all behind us and we can go out here and win some games,'' James said.
James said he will not play in Sunday's season finale against the Oakland Raiders, which means he will have played 63 snaps combined in three games this season after he had signed a four-year, $51 million contract last March. That contract made James the highest-paid player at his position until the Philadelphia Eagles signed Lane Johnson to a four-year, $72 million extension last month.
But it has been a frustrating season for both the Broncos and James since he suffered the initial injury to his knee 10 snaps into the season opener Sept. 9 in Oakland. James said Tuesday that the injury was a tear in his MCL and he missed the next six games.
He then played 20 snaps Oct. 27 against the Indianapolis Colts when "I got rolled up on.'' James said he re-aggravated the MCL in that game to go with a partial tear of the meniscus in the same knee, as well as tearing "some scar tissue.''
"That Colts game, in my mind, I was like I'm back,'' James said. " ... Unfortunately it's football, you get rolled up on at our position, my knee got hurt worse.''
James missed the next four games. He played the first half of the Broncos' win on Dec. 8 against the Houston Texans, but said that during the game his knee kept "giving out.'' Broncos coach Vic Fangio had said leading up to the game that James would not play more than a half.
"(But) from the first quarter it was just, like, it just gave out on me, it was buckling, it was like I keep saying, the pain is one thing, pain you can deal with, but when I'm out there feeling like I'm on one leg, stuff like that, that's when I'm worried about my knee. And after getting the MRI that day, they were like, 'Yeah, stuff is still torn in there, it just needs time to heal.'''
James has not played since, and the Broncos did not place him on injured reserve. Asked Monday if James would play in Sunday's season finale, Fangio had said. "We'll see ... We'll see where he's at.''
Tuesday, James said two doctors have told him they do not believe he will need surgery in the offseason, but he expects to undergo another MRI in February. He also said he expects to be ready to participate in the Broncos' offseason program in April.
"Hopefully everything should be healed by (February),'' James said. "It was just tough because we started that from the beginning and then getting rolled up on ... tearing it, that's why it never got a chance to fully heal.''