A RUNNING BACK AWAY

                The Denver Broncos have just completed their second season under Sean Payton, one of the best offensive-minded coaches in the NFL today.  During his first two seasons as the Broncos head coach, they’ve recorded eighteen wins and sixteen losses, plus he took the Broncos back to the playoffs for the first time since they won their last Super Bowl (2015-2016).  In only one year Payton, alongside the Broncos' offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, improved their offensive output across the board.  Last season, the Broncos ranked 26th in total yards per game (298.4); this season, they upgraded their position to 19th (324.6).  The offense managed to split the difference in their points per game ranking going from 20th (21.0) last season to 10th place (25.0) this year.   There is no doubt the entire outlook of the Broncos offense has already come a long way in just one year.  The story of their season was about how a rookie quarterback (Bo Nix) threw for 29 TDs, the 2nd most passing TDs by a rookie in NFL history (Justin Herbert had 31 in 2020).

                While the Broncos were able to outproduce both their passing (24th in 2023, 20th in 2024) and rushing yard (18th in 2023, 16th in 2024) totals this season, the offense still lacks something important.  They could and certainly should upgrade their tight-end position through the draft or free agency, though the top priority this offseason needs to be the running back position.  What if I told you the Denver Broncos have not had a thousand-yard rusher in the past six years?  They currently hold the fifth-longest streak of this nature.    Did you know the last time the Broncos drafted a running back who accomplished this milestone was in 2009? (Knowshon Moreno) Crazy right?  That’s the year I graduated high school!  They have only had nine rushers achieve this feat since Terrell Davis’s last thousand-yard season, (three of them ran for 1,000+ yards twice, Mike Anderson, Clinton Portis, and Phillip Lindsay).   Five of these players were drafted by Denver, two went undrafted, and the other two were free-agent signings.

                This is why I have the certitude that Denver needs to make a major impact this upcoming year by drafting a highly talented running back.  Though not just any runner, I am talking about a guy who fell just twenty-seven yards short of breaking Barry Sanders’ all-time NCAA single-season rushing record, Boise State’s own Ashton Jeanty (2,601 yards).  I’m tremendously confident through watching Ashton Jeanty the past three seasons that he would take Sean Payton’s offense to a whole new level, even as a rookie!  The Broncos are running back away from becoming a great team yet again and possess the top offensive line in the league according to profootballnetwork.com.  This year they made the first round of the playoffs though, with a runner like Jeanty, the mind of Payton plus an immensely talented quarterback in Bo Nix, I firmly believe they can return to a Conference Championship or even the Super Bowl.