J.K. Dobbins: Ready to Shake Off Injury-Prone Label with Chargers

After a tumultuous two years, J.K. Dobbins is ready to put his injury woes behind him and start anew with the Los Angeles Chargers. The 24-year-old running back, who signed a one-year deal with the Chargers in the offseason, is feeling 100 percent healthy and is excited to reunite with his former Baltimore Ravens teammate Gus Edwards and offensive coordinator Greg Roman.

“I’m 100 percent now,” Dobbins said in a recent interview. “It was like a walk in the park, it was like a sprained ankle. It was very easy, because I had the knee [injury] – the knee was pretty hard. The Achilles was, I would say, easy, just because that’s my mentality.”

J.K. Dobbins is ready to put his injury woes behind him and start anew with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Dobbins’ career began with great fanfare in Baltimore, where he was part of a three-headed backfield that included Edwards and Justice Hill. As a rookie, he lived up to expectations, rushing for 805 yards and scoring nine touchdowns on just 134 attempts, averaging six yards per carry for a Ravens team that finished 11-5 and reached the playoffs via a wild-card berth.

However, his subsequent seasons were marred by injuries, including a season-ending knee injury in the 2021 preseason and a torn Achilles tendon in Week 1 of the 2023 season. Despite these setbacks, Dobbins remains optimistic about his future with the Chargers.

“I think that the storm is over with,” Dobbins said. “I think that I’m going to take off now. There will be no setbacks. The injury-prone thing will be gone, out of the window, again.”

Dobbins is excited to reunite with Edwards, who also made the move from Baltimore to Los Angeles. “I think that we complement each other very well,” Dobbins said. “He can do a lot of stuff, too. A lot of people think that he is just power, power, power, but I think that he has some other parts to his game, too, which will be great.”

The presence of Greg Roman, the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator, is also a major plus for Dobbins. Roman was the mastermind behind the Ravens’ run-first attack that shredded opponents across the NFL, and Dobbins is thrilled to be playing in his offense again.

“It gives me a lot of excitement,” Dobbins said. “I think that he does have some good things in the passing game, too. Like you said, he sticks with the run, that’s the identity. You want an offense that has an identity. You don’t want to be looking everywhere else to find your identity, you want to have it. I think that his offense has that. The guys that he builds and puts in there, it complements that idea. I think that it’s going to be great.”

Greg Roman, the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator, is a major plus for J.K. Dobbins.

Ultimately, Dobbins’ health will be the determining factor in his success with the Chargers. While he’s eager to get back on the field, he knows he must trust the team’s medical staff in the process.

“If it’s up to me, yes,” Dobbins said with a laugh when asked if he’d be fully available for training camp. “I had this problem two or three years ago, I’m thinking that I’m full-go, I think that I’m ready to go, and the next thing you know, I’m on PUP.”

J.K. Dobbins is ready to put his injury woes behind him and start anew with the Los Angeles Chargers.