On Tuesday, the Broncos war room got a surprise visitor — recently retired safety Brian Dawkins.

Dawkins entered the room to thank everyone in it for the opportunity to play in Denver, and there were lots of smiles, hugs, laughs and some heartfelt interaction.

Before he left the room, however, Owner/CEO Pat Bowlen, Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway, Head Coach John Fox, General Manager Brian Xanders and the rest of the war room had a surprise for Dawkins as well.

The group presented him with a framed No. 20 jersey, which Dawkins said he truly appreciated.

Dawkins is expected to meet the media at approximately noon MDT today, and DenverBroncos.com will have more coverage of his visit to Dove Valley this afternoon.

-Gray Caldwell

Cleaning out his locker Sunday, Brian Dawkins stopped to talk about what he described as “a roller coaster ride” of a season.

“In the middle of that roller coaster ride, there was an up that nobody saw coming from where we started,” Dawkins said. “It was some joy, it was some believing in teammates, it was a character-builder, it was young players growing up, and it did a lot for this team to help us get into the playoffs.”

Dawkins doesn’t buy that the team “backed in” to the postseason.

“No,” he said. “We earned that spot.”

But once the team got there, Dawkins wasn’t able to join his teammates on the field.