Denver begins its NFL preseason slate Saturday at Minnesota. This much we know. What we don’t know is who the Broncos will be starting—or even playing—at running back. That’s because the game-day depth chart Denver submitted to media members Saturday (as discovered by Vikings beat reporter Ari Hasan of The Athletic) completely omitted that position.
You might recall the Broncos, due to a COVID outbreak, played their Week 12 game against New Orleans last season without a true quarterback, summoning receiver Kendall Hinton (who last played the position in college) from the practice squad to serve as their nominal starter. However, this doesn’t appear to be the same situation. The Broncos have plenty of running backs in their arsenal—Melvin Gordon, Javonte Williams, Royce Freeman and Mike Boone (currently facing a 4 to 6-week absence due to a quad injury suffered at training camp), to name a few. They just chose not to list any of them, either for gamesmanship purposes (coach Vic Fangio loves a good head game) or by mistake.
Thanks in large part to the NFL’s analytics boom, the league has significantly devalued running backs in recent years with teams regarding most ball-carriers as replaceable relative to other skill positions like quarterback or wide receiver. But even if the NFL is, as many claim, a “passing league,” the Broncos would be wise to keep a few backfield weapons in their holster, particularly in the absence of a premier quarterback (neither journeyman Teddy Bridgewater or underachiever Drew Lock fit that description).
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