ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Throughout the offseason, Sean Payton has spoken of wanting to see what the running backs on hand possessed.
As far back as the NFL Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Fla. on March 31, he capped a lengthy answer about what he was looking for when evaluating the position by pointing out the players on the roster. Sure, general manager George Paton said later that day that the team would definitely add a running back in the draft, but Payton made it clear that the returning runners were not to be ignored.
“Make no mistake about it: We’re wanting to see our group at home get these opportunities now,” Payton said then.
And with good reason, because Payton’s history of running-back usage long tilts toward favoring a two-back tandem approach — one which was never more effective than when he had Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram dicing up defenses in the late 2010s.
So, even after the Broncos drafted RJ Harvey with a second-round pick, there was plenty of room for at least one of Audric Estime, Tyler Badie Jaleel McLaughlin or Blake Watson to have a prominent place.
And with the speedy McLaughlin perhaps sliding into more of the change-of-pace role for which the 5-foot-7, 187-pound third-year back is likely best suited for long-term effectiveness, that left opportunity at the feet of Estime, Badie and Watson — with Estime the most prominent of those three last year based on draft status and use.
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“He’s a back that requires enough touches,” Payton said May 29. “He’s going to get those opportunities.”
Tuesday, as minicamp began in the shadow of the news that six-year veteran running back J.K. Dobbins was Denver-bound, Payton doubled down on that assertion — even though the complexion of the room appeared set to change.
“They’re going to get opportunities,” Payton said. “I said it earlier — much earlier. I said, look, Audric’s going to get opportunities, all right, We’ve seen Jaleel. B
“But don’t try to figure out the club right now. It’s way too early.”
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ESTIME STRUGGLED WITH FUMBLES LAST YEAR
Had Audric Estime not found himself beset by ball-security issues last season, the Broncos might not have been in the running-back market to begin with — or their search might have started and ended with the draft.
Estime has as many fumbles in 81 regular-season touches — two — as Dobbins has in 488 career touches.
Dobbins’ fumble rate of one every 244 touches is exactly the same as McLaughlin’s. That’s how you earn the trust of coaches. If you include last year’s preseason — when Estime fumbled once, at Indianapolis — then Estime has a rate of one fumble every 35 touches.
So, if Estime were part of a running-back tandem, that rate would translate to a fumble roughly every two or three games. That won’t merely land you on the bench; it’ll send you to the waiver wire in short order.
He endured the embarrassment of [carrying a football around Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit as punishment for — and reminder of](http:// Yes, Estime will still get opportunities; this is objectively true. You can’t have a training camp with only two or three running backs. Dobbins brings the total to six; there’s still enough repetitions to go around for everyone to get a shot. But it would be a shock if Dobbins did not make the 53-player roster for a reason other than injury. That could certainly happen; with a player who has missed more games than he’s played in his career, such a potential outcome cannot be dismissed. But the reality is that the dynamic of the running-back room will change with Dobbins’ arrival. And no Broncos runner might have seen his outlook altered more than Audric Estime, who might have gone from the favorite for a 1-A or RB-2 role to sitting squarely on the roster bubble. View on Threads