Broncos' Ekuban frustrated by pace of healing from torn Achilles

By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Ebenezer Ekuban said his recovery has been frustrating. "It crosses your mind that . . . you might not bounce back," Ekuban said.

Surgeons might have repaired Ebenezer Ekuban's right leg, might have stitched him up and sent him on his way, but almost nine months after the Broncos defensive end tore an Achilles' tendon, he continues to discover healing has its own calendar.

And he doesn't get to flip the pages.

"Patience, man, just patience and more patience," Ekuban said Tuesday. "That's what I've come away with. It's just so long, and that's what gets you down. You sprain an ankle or have some other kind of injury, you see improvement week to week and sometimes even day to day.

"But with the Achilles, you just don't see that improvement. You just feel like you stay the same."

In the aftermath of a 7-9 finish in 2007, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has often started discussions about many of the things that went wrong on the team's defense last season with, "First we lost Ebenezer . . . "

Ekuban tore his right Achilles in an Aug. 18 preseason game in Dallas - he was trying to escape a double team and collided with then-teammate Amon Gordon.

And a player the Broncos were hoping to use at end and tackle and as a mentor to their younger linemen instead was sentenced to a season in the training room, restricted to early-morning treatments and a steady diet of uncertainty.

"It crosses your mind that it might be it, that you might not bounce back," Ekuban said. "It was just frustrating because, for a while, you work and work and work and you just don't see the progress."

"It's just a hard thing to come back from to get your confidence back," said Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley, who ruptured his right Achilles' tendon in 2006. "I think you go through that process where you don't see the improvement that you want to see, you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is a time when you really don't know if you're going to be able to make it through it, if you're going to be able to return to the way you used to play."

Now in his third week back on the field as the Broncos go through a team camp on the heels of a passing camp the past two weeks, Ekuban said he is beginning to see, and feel, his strength and confidence return.

He has taken a regular rotation in drills, even rushing from an inside tackle position alongside Dewayne Robertson when the team goes to its nickel (five defensive backs) package.

"Toughest aspect is mental, telling myself that it's OK, stop being tentative, stop trying to be cautious with it," said Ekuban, who visited the Raiders in free agency before re-signing with the Broncos. "Just go. That's the toughest part, the mental hurdle. . . . The first time I got out here, last week and the week before, I was thinking, 'Man, it's so weak,' especially playing against the run. That's when I talked to Brandon Stokley and I was just so frustrated . . . "

"Just a long process," Stokley said. "For him, it's just the first step, and it's only going to get better - that was my message. You can't expect to be your old self right now. . . . Be patient with it . . . "

And not only on the field. Ekuban's role often is to provide a veteran shoulder to lean on at a position where seven teammates have played less than two NFL seasons.

Defensive end Elvis Dumervil, who has led the team in sacks each of the past two years, said he routinely sought out Ekuban when he needed to get over a rough spot.

But the veteran's injury largely took him out of that position last season.

During a typical game week, injured players usually spend most of their day with the team's medical and training staff while other players go through their meetings and practices.

"And when you're hurt, you can talk, but nobody is really going to listen all the time unless you're out there on that field," Ekuban said. "But now I'm back, it's starting to feel better and better, I'm finally starting to see that progress. I'm ready to start putting last year behind me and do some things this year."

Added Stokley: "You keep working, keep fighting through it. That's how it goes, and that's how I think (Ekuban) has approached it. He'll be back all the way, it just takes time."

ETC.: When the Broncos' first- team offense has lined up this week, the offensive line consisted of rookie Ryan Clady at left tackle, Ben Hamilton at left guard, Tom Nalen at center, Montrae Holland at right guard and Chris Kuper at right tackle. Before the Broncos took Clady with their first-round pick in the April draft, Shanahan said Kuper was a candidate for the left tackle spot. . . . The players will be off today before resuming workouts Thursday and Friday.

• June 4, 2008

  7:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  orangeblood2 writes:

  So is the injury healed 100%? Is it all mental at this point? Um, we kind of need him on the D-line.

• June 4, 2008

  12:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  sbhchawk writes:

  what about Harris on the Oline? Wasn't he a candidate to start at either tackle this year?

  Were counting on you Ekuban, good luck to you

• June 4, 2008

  3:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  incognitoboy writes:

  sbhchawk-

  yeah, and hillary WAS a 'candidate' for president, too. kuper (a guard, by title) might be the team's obama. is mike-o using him out there as motivation for others' development, maybe? or he could just be THAT versatile, THAT good.....

  so, does that mean harris is like the possible v.p. of tackle, then?

  where does that leave pears? polumbus? both nice, local boys, fighting for a job.....good luck, guys.

• June 4, 2008

  4:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  myerda00 writes:

  Remember at the end of last season, Shanahan said that Kuper graded out best of the OL. He can play. Per FoxSports, Holland has his guard spot. Here is what I see;
  Clady Hamilton Nalen Holland Kuper
  BU's Pears Harris Lichtensteiger Weigmann
  PS Polumbus (and he may be select the first week).
  If Lichtensteiger is for real, Weigmann maybe odd man out.