Denver Guard Epitomizes Broncos Toughness, Resilience

The Denver Broncos have some tough linemen up front on offense, and they’re proud of the way they roll. Few epitomize the standard they’ve set more than guard Ben Powers, who discussed the dynamic in a piece by Troy Renck of the Denver Post. 

Powers came back from a torn bicep last year, which is a fairly grisly injury to which the name doesn’t do justice. It happened against the Philadelphia Eagles last season, in a key victory that changed the course of the Broncos’ season. 

“Well, it popped off the forearm and rolled up on me,” Powers said last week at practice. 

It’s considered a fairly catastrophic injury, but Powers didn’t see it that way. He looked at it as an interruption to an obligation, which isnt exactly a great way to view the injury from a medical perspective. 

“Given the chemistry we have developed, I think it is pretty selfish to just kind of bow out because something is bothering you,” Powers explained. “It was the drive that won the game. I think we can all fairly say, looking back, that it was the turning point of our season. Beating the reigning Super Bowl champs in Philadelphia, down 15, that is where our team grew closer and gained a bunch of confidence.”

Powers made it back in what’s believed to be record time, according to Renck, and he also played through a Lisfranc foot injury, which is also incredibly painful, after sustaining that one against the Jacksonville Jaguars in December. Once again, he took a non-medical point of view by foregoing even an MRI. 

“I said, ‘I can’t do it.’ I had just missed all those games, and that exam could be a death sentence. It bothered me during the week,” Powers said. “Normally, it swells up like a football. My foot was an anomaly. The doctors could not give me a good answer why. So I was able to get through it with the adrenaline of the games.”

So why does Powers do this when he’s putting both his career and his contract at risk? 

“Simple,” Powers said, “because we are in this together.”

You hear these stories all around the league, but they seem to be uniquely focused on the Broncos, espeically when it comes to the linemen. Players go down all the time, but somehow they don’t seem to stay that way for very long. 

“There is a standard that this regime has built over the past four years that you can’t let your brother down next to you,” Powers said. “The closer you get to that goal of a Super Bowl, you understand the significance of winning it all. 

“You look back at the AFC Championship Game, and we were one drive away from playing in the Super Bowl. And that sucks. It sucks to think that, and now we have to look in the mirror and see how we can get over the hump. But we are in this together. At the end of the day, all that matters is the team and getting the win.”