ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Set to face the NFL's No. 1 rushing team in the Buffalo Bills on Saturday, the Denver Broncos' defense got a boost Tuesday.
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who was one of the Broncos' biggest free agency acquisitions this past offseason, returned to the practice field and is on track to play in the divisional round game at Empower Field at Mile High.
Greenlaw, who missed eight games this season because of injuries and one due to a suspension, had missed the last two games of the regular season with a hamstring injury.
Greenlaw left the Broncos' Dec. 21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars when he pulled up trying to chase down Travis Etienne with just over two minutes left in the game. He had missed six other games earlier this season with a thigh injury.
"It's good to have a healthy Dre Greenlaw back in the game,'' Broncos coach Sean Payton said after Tuesday's practice, the Broncos' first on-field work of the week.
Given the Bills led the league in rushing this season at 159.6 yards per game, it is a welcome return even for a Broncos' defense that has been one of the league's best this season. Especially since it was also the Bills who unceremoniously shoved the Broncos out of the playoffs last January with 210 yards rushing in the 31-7 wild-card win with 79 of those rushing yards coming in the first quarter alone.
James Cook, who led the league in rushing this season with 1,621 rushing yards with a 5.25 yards per carry average that was second-best in the NFL, finished Buffalo's playoff win last January with 120 yards on his 23 carries.
"Obviously they whupped our butt last year,'' Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto said.
"There were a lot of things we felt coming away from a game like that [like] 'we're not there yet [and] we need to improve','' Payton said. "It's the runner, it's the scheme...we'll have to be ready.''
The Broncos signed Greenlaw to a three-year, $31.5 million contract last March with the hope he would add some physicality to a defense that had some difficulty limiting opponents' explosive runs in the 2024 season. But he missed the offseason program with thigh injuries as well as the Broncos' first six games of the season.
He was also suspended for a game - the Broncos' Oct. 26 win over the Dallas Cowboys - due to a post-game confrontation with referee Brad Allen after the Broncos' win over the New York Giants. At the time, the NFL said Greenlaw "chased after referee Brad Allen and verbally threatened him as he tried to leave the field.''
The Broncos finished No. 2 in run defense overall this season -- 91.1 rushing yards allowed per game -- and had the highest rate of run stops at, or behind, the line of scrimmage this season at 30.3%.