DENVER — The last time Alex Singleton played in an NFL game, he only had one intact ACL for the majority of the contest.
Last season, during the Denver Broncos‘ Week 3 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 22, the defensive captain tore his ACL on the eighth play of the game. However, he didn’t leave the game. He played the final 49 snaps on that torn ACL.
“I’ve never seen anyone play, obviously, that long,” Sean Payton told the media last fall, when reflecting on Singleton playing the rest of the game with a torn ACL. “That’s pretty remarkable.”
Less than eight months after the devastating injury, Singleton’s on track in his recovery as the Broncos begin their offseason workout program, he told DNVR in an exclusive interview.
“It’s good. I feel like I’m on schedule. It’s feeling really good,” the Broncos’ captain told DNVR on Tuesday. “I’m working my way in to doing things with the guys, which has been the most important thing to kind of be on that timeline with everyone else during the offseason. I’m able to do that. Full speed ahead for me. We’re going to just keep attacking this like everything else. Excited for this season.”
While Singleton didn’t want to lay out an exact timeline for when he’ll be fully cleared, he did make it clear he’ll be ready to roll Week 1.
“I still can’t technically fully say, but let’s just say that there should be no worries about ’49’ playing this year,” he said with a big smile, referring to himself. “I’ll be out there.”
Leading up to the Super Bowl in February, Singleton joked with DNVR he could have played on Super Bowl Sunday if the Broncos had made it.
“Maybe [I couldn’t have played] then, but I’m seventh months out today from surgery,” he said on Tuesday, reacting to his own comment from February. “Let’s just say we’re in a really good spot. You get three more months. Three more. So we’re good.”
Singleton has just under three more months until training camp kicks off and four more months until the season is underway. In March, Singleton posted a video to his Instagram of him running full speed. Since, he’s taken additional, and encouraging, steps in his recovery.
Another encouraging sign is he hasn’t faced a single setback.
“That’s the one thing that’s been awesome with my recovery,” Singleton told DNVR on Tuesday. “I’ve been with [vice president of player health & performance] Beau Lowery every single day since October 15, since surgery. Thankfully, I’ve just had kind of a steady incline.”
“I would have told you four months ago I could have played football, but like, I know I couldn’t have,” he added. “But now, since every single day — that’s 120 days ago — and every day I’ve felt better. Every day I’ll tell you I feel better. I’m kind of wondering when that time will come that it’s just like — maybe I don’t answer that question, but hopefully it can just continue to feel better and just be better than I was before.”
Unlike his teammates who didn’t face a season-ending injury, Singleton’s routine has stayed the same from October until now.
“My day has not changed since the day I got back from getting surgery. I’m in here at 6:00 a.m. and I leave at 1:00 p.m,” he revealed. “It’s all treatment, lifts and runs, depending on whatever step I’m in that process — it’s obviously got a little more advanced, but that’s what I do. I do rehab, I lift and I run. Or I run and I lift. That’s always been the same.”
During the season, instead of going to practice, Singleton would wrap up his treatment and workouts and head home. He hated that.
“It killed me to just watch them be going to practice and I’m just going home. Those days, that just eats at you,” he stated. “It was awesome coaching the guys and helping out.”
Although Singleton has grown close with the Broncos’ training staff, he’s chomping at the bit to get back on the field to experience the joy that only football can give him.
“I love being in the huddle, breaking the huddle, getting out, figuring out what’s going to happen and just like running through a gap and hitting somebody,” Singleton said with a smirk. “There’s nothing that brings that much joy to my life — because it’s different than the baby and my wife. They bring me the most joy ever, but that’s a peaceful joy. You know? An angry, violent, physical, kind of like caveman like joy. You don’t get that anywhere else.”
The wait is nearly over for Alex Singleton to have that kind of joy back in his life.
