Broncos vs Raiders injury report: Clarity on Ja’Wuan James injury emerges

After 17 weeks of wondering what is going on with Ja’Wuan James, we finally found out. The extent of James’ injuries were cumulative from a torn MCL in Week 1, to partially tearing his meniscus in Week 8, and another MCL tear in his last attempt to return against the Houston Texans.

All the while, we thought his decision to not play was on him and not medical. It was a strange way the Denver Broncos decided to handle these injuries where clarity would have been much more helpful for fans and the patience they would or would not have for James as he battled through these issues.

Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic was able to sit down with James to discuss this in great detail shedding light on his entire ordeal through the 2019 season. The good news for Broncos fans and for James’ career, he sees himself making a full recovery from these multiple injuries for next season.

Any concern about not being 100 percent for next season?

No, see that’s why I’m really wanting to focus on it now and get it all the way healthy so I can just put this behind me. It’s already been disappointing coming here for the first time, trying to make an impact on the team and a good impression and the first game that happened and just lingered. Mentally it was (tough). But the O-line and the guys in this locker room have done a good job of keeping me up mentally and knowing, “All right, get yourself right so when we need you, we’ll have you.”

When he has played, he has played well. The fact that he has had three separate injuries all in the same area is crazy to think about. Any one of those injuries could have landed most players on injured reserve and while hindsight suggests that maybe Week 1 should have been a trip to injured reserve, he instead tried to fight through it.

I look forward to seeing Ja’Wuan James return to full strength in 2020 with Drew Lock as the quarterback of the Broncos. Denver needs some stability on the outside.

Here is the full estimated practice participation reports for both the Broncos and Oakland Raiders for Christmas Day. Neither team actually practiced today.

BOLD - Indicates change in status; NIR­- Indicates not injury related; *- Team did not practice / report is an estimation.

STATUS DEFINITIONS: Did not participate (DNP); Limited: means less than 100 percent of a player’s normal repetitions; Full: 100 percent of player’s normal repetitions; Out: will not play; Doubtful: Unlikely to play; Questionable: Uncertain to play.