Is a surprise cut coming for the Denver Broncos? | The Rundown

Is a surprise cut coming for the Denver Broncos? | The Rundown

[Music] Is a surprise cut coming for the Denver Broncos ahead of the start of their official preeason which begins tomorrow in Santa Clara. Which running backs currently find themselves on the outside looking in? And how will Shawn Payeyton and Bo Nick Knicks navigate all of the moving parts and pieces that are new to this Broncos offense in 2025? All things to come on today’s rundown. But I want to begin with the running back room where the race for that RB3 spot. The third running back behind presumed starter and backup or potentially co-starter caliber players in JK Dobbins and RJ Harvey has tightened up maybe a little bit more than we initially thought. It felt like throughout the majority of training camp thus far that Jal Mclofflin, who had an opportunity to overtake the starting job from Javvante Williams last season, although he was ultimately unable to do so, seemed like he kind of had that one locked up and ready to go. I felt that way. I know several others here at our station felt that way. Um, and it makes sense, right? because you’ve got JK Diamonds and RJ Harvey who are both going to have roles clearly defined in both the running and passing game this season. And Jula Mclofflin as that third running back is somebody who despite having limited carries presents a skill set with his speed and ability to get out on the edge that’s a great change of pace for Shawn Peyton to be able to utilize unlike that of Audrey Estime who despite being bigger and sturdier and probably a better body to run between the tackles seems to kind of need that handful of carries to get into a rhythm and get going. Well, behind the two running backs in front with JK and RJ, those carries might be slim. And so, Jaloo Mclofflin has a change of pace back a and a third down option in the passing game is somebody that seemed like he was tailor made to fit that. But not so fast because it has started to creep up over this past week and there was more evidence of it during the joint practice in Santa Clara that Tyler Bedet, the kind of uh one half of the practice squad duo of running backs for the Broncos with he and Blake Watson uh suddenly may be emerging as a candidate to overtake Jalle from that third running back spot and create a situation where both Jalil and Audri who were fighting for the starting job last year find themselves suddenly odd men out in a room where three running backs feels like the number that Shawn Payeyton is going to carry. The fourth obviously being Michael Burton the fullback and we know Shawn Peyton loves his fullbacks. So, could we be looking at Jal Mclofflin as a potential surprise cutdown when this roster is ultimately finalized in about a month or 3 weeks from now and it be Tyler Bedet who emerges as the third down running back. And the case for Tyler Bedet is this one, he’s a good pass protector. Shawn Peyton went out of his way unprompted to bring up Tyler Beday’s skill set and his pass protection. He has also shown that he can carve out a significant role on special teams. We saw him in training camp this past week doing a lot of first team reps as personal protector on special teams to the punter Jeremy Cross Shaw. And with his speed and pass catching ability, he doesn’t present maybe quite the extensive skill set of a Jul Mclofflin, but something that’s maybe close enough and somebody you could get more special teams contributions from than a guy like Jal and certainly than a guy like Aric who’s kind of seemingly facing an uphill battle on multiple fronts right now. And Shawn Payeyton spoke about uh about Tyler Bedet and what he was doing out there in Santa Clara yesterday where he said, “Yeah, he does a lot of things well. He’s someone who can play on third down. He is, I would say, a very good receiver at that position and he’s right there in the thick of it.” as we start evaluating that group of runners who are all competing for a spot or two. That’s pretty telling words from a guy like Shawn Peyton who knows what he has in front of him. Several of the backs who are all of the backs I should say who are competing for this spot. Shawn Peyton has already been able to have eyes on for more than a year because we’re not talking about JK and RJ in this situation. So, he’s already had time to evaluate a lot of these guys from last year heading into this off seasonason and now with the joint practices in Santa Clara. And Zach Bay and I on the drive yesterday talked to Mike Cliss, our 9 News Broncos insider who’s out there in Santa Clara keeping eyes on the practice. and even he made a point to bring up Tyler Beday’s name when it came to evaluations and overall takeaways from their first opportunity to pop pads against someone other than themselves in the Denver Broncos. So, does this mean that the race for the third running back spot is closed? No. But I will say this, I’m suddenly not 100% convinced that Jal Mclofflin has this third running back spot locked up, set in stone, write it in Sharpie because Tyler Bedet has crept along slowly over the course of this training camp. He’s emerged with a little bit more clearly defined role on special teams as a personal protector and elsewhere. He presents a similar skill set to Jal Mclofflin. He’s a good pass catcher. He’s somebody that’s certainly not slowfooted or heavy-footed himself. So with speed, passcatching ability, Shawn Peyton going out of his way to highlight his pass protection on multiple occasions. Something that a a third back, especially a third down back, is going to need to be able to do. It really does feel like Tyler Bedet, who got the jersey in the playoff game against Buffalo last postseason over Aric Esté, could suddenly find himself creeping right up there at the front of this race for the third running back spot for the Broncos in 2025. If indeed that is the case, it would be another new piece to the general rotation on offense that Shawn Peyton and Bo Knicks are going to have to navigate this season. And suddenly we are finding a situation where this offense that we saw in 2024, which had some pretty clearly defined deficiencies, no juice in the run game with little to no balance most of the time week to week unless Bo Nicks was able to supplement a lot of that with his own legs in addition to the pass game. We saw a lack of playmakers, particularly at the tight end position and secondarily at the wide receiver position for people not named Courtland Sutton. Well, all of those things have been answered. You got Evan Ingram here to be your Joker. They drafted Pat Bryant and you’re going to get continued development and and role changes for guys like Marvin Mims, Devon Vele, Troy Franklin who is also emerging as as a legitimate candidate to be the bonafide wide receiver too opposite Courtland Sutton against Tennessee. And then you have a revamped run game with JK Dobbins, RJ Harvey, and maybe as we’re learning Tyler Bedet and not Jul Mclofflin or Rodri. But all of that to say, there’s a lot of new pieces and parts that are fitting into this offense. I I I phrased it to Zach B yesterday in a sense of this of the the car that Bon Knicks was driving last season. Well, during this off season, they’ve added some butterfly doors. They’ve got some fuzzy dice. They’ve got spinners. There’s a lot of fresh new parts in this car. Maybe an upgraded transmission. And because of that, the car drives a little differently. We’re seeing Shawn Payeyton move toward more of an outside zone running scheme, which changes the way the offense has to block and approach their assignments. It changes the style of plays that they run on offense and the personnel in terms of the backs and tight ends that are going to be used in those formations. And then you add Evan Ingram as a weapon and a field uh downfield threat over the middle and and everything that’s going on at wide receiver. This is not a situation where Bo Nicks is taking the offense from last year and Shawn Peyton is taking his offense from last year and running it back with just upgraded pieces and parts at those various positions. This 2025 Denver Broncos offense is something that is going to look different than it did last year even schematically or through the the the game flow in the course of a game. So, I think that is a reason why we’ve seen some clunkiness, some disjointedness, uh, and and some some lackluster performances from this offense thus far is that they’re learning a lot of new stuff from an install standpoint and a chemistry standpoint and a timing and rhythm standpoint, which is critical in all NFL offenses, particularly here in Shawn Payton’s. And Sean talked about his offense and the work that they’ve gotten done overall throughout the joint practice yesterday and he said this obviously a lot of good film for us to get here in the next day and a half. Anytime you get to work against a different team with a different cadence, different defensive alignments offensively the same way with route concepts. You’re solving problems on the fly. I said to the players, there’s a lot when we get back to the hotel that we’re going to want to look at and clean up. Overall, I was pleased with the work we got and both sides I thought handled themselves well. It was competitive and yet we got a ton of situational work. Two-minute red zone, third down, and a lot of teamwork. So, a lot of players getting a lot of work. And that is the truth. It was kind of a tale of of two halves. It felt like for the joint practice yesterday where it felt like the Broncos defense came out with their hair on fire, smothering Brock Pury, Christian McCaffrey, and the 49ers offense in a head-to-head matchup during the team periods. A and the offense got some of theirs as well. Came along a little bit slower, but then on the back half, suddenly the 49ers, who are a perennial playoff contender in the NFC in their own right and have playmakers of note on both sides of the ball, started to get theirs maybe on the back half. So, I think Shawn Peyton’s assessment of things is pretty accurate in that he got a lot of players to get a lot of work. And while there certainly were things that they need to clean up on both sides of the ball and maybe things that we overall wouldn’t be pleased with, it’s clearly laid out there on the tape. And one of the advantages of playing these joint practices and scheduling these so that they can they can go up against and get different looks from people who aren’t just wearing the opposite color jersey of them that they see in the locker room every day. So for Shawn Peyton’s offense in 2025, it could be a situation where we see a slower start because of all the new additions from JK and R.J. in the backfield to Evan Ingram as the Joker, Pat Bryant and different roles for the likes of of Marvin Mims and Devon Vele with everything they’ve got going around them, different schemes in the run game, etc. There could be a very real chance that we see once again, like we’ve seen in every year of Shawn Peyton’s tenure this far, and something he’s been outspoken about fixing is another slow start. And that’s a little bit sticky in the 2025 season because when you look at their schedule coming into this season, they’ve got a game against the Tennessee Titans and a game against the Indianapolis Colts to start the season. two what should be very winnable games. Especially if you’re Shawn Peyton and you’ve come out and said you think this team is one of seven teams in your entire coaching career that you think can win a Super Bowl and you think your quarterback in Bo Knicks is going to be a top four or five guy in the next four years. Two weeks is all you get if you’re the Broncos offense to have some sort of slow start because from weeks three through five, you arguably have your toughest stretch of the season where you’ve got to play the Chargers, you’ve got a showdown with the Bengals, and then the Super Bowl champion, defending champion, Philadelphia Eagles backto backto back. And if this offense is limping into week three and still feels disjointed in nature and a little bit clunky because of all the new additions that they’ve made, the Broncos could find themselves behind the eightball very quickly into the 2025 season and put them in a position where they’re already going to be fighting for postseason contention and playoff seating both within their division and within the AFC at large, which as we know is stacked, especially at the quarterback position with Patrick Mahome homes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, even Justin Herbert, and CJ Strad kind of below that. So, all of the new pieces and parts on this offense that Shawn Peyton and George Payton went out and acquired were more than necessary and I think will have significant impacts in the 2025 season. But the urgency to get the timing down and utilize every rep a and practice and preseason game possible to be able to meld these pieces together with the moving train that is Bo Knicks and Shawn Peyton’s offense is critical because the ground gets going quickly in the 2025 season once we hit week three. Want to make sure I get to some of your comments here um on the uh on the social media channels. Follow us on on Instagram and Tik Tok and Facebook and YouTube. I see a handful of you chiming in here. Always love getting the opportunity to chat with you all. Uh so I’m seeing it here from let’s see keep four backs from Chris. I don’t know about that. Four running backs. Do you not keep a fullback then? and Michael Burton. That does change schematically the way that you approach your offense and your personnel grouping. So, if you’re going to keep four backs, you you can’t keep a fullback in addition to that because there’s only so much to go around. We will see how Shawn Peyton approaches it, but my guess is you’re looking at three and you’re going to try to slide at least two on the practice god whether it’s Blake Watson and Tyler Beday again and Jal Mclofflin or Audrey Estime and Blake Watson, you know, Audri and Jalle perhaps. I don’t know, but I the likelihood that they keep four backs would be very surprising to me. From Roy, I’m not so sure about Estime as well. Yeah, listen, when I look at Audrey Esté out there at Broncos Park powered by common spirit, where so many of us have been on site each and every day, keep an eyes on everything for you if you are are not able to be there yourselves. Audrey Guest looks like a man among boys in that running back room. He is taller. He is bigger. He is stronger. And yet, he still isn’t able to find some kind of footing there. And it just has me feeling convinced that there’s something else going on there with Estim that’s contributing to his fall from grace. going from a guy who was a fifthround draft pick that Shawn Peyton clearly had a vision for to getting meaningful carries in a critical game-winning got to have it drive in Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs who are undefeated at that point in time. He goes from that to being a guy who doesn’t get a playoff jersey in the wildard round against the Buffalo Bills in favor of a guy like Tyler Bedet who we hadn’t seen play since the first five weeks of the NFL season with the injuries that he was dealing with. You can’t tell me given the physical mismatch that Audrey Estime has compared to the rest of the backs in that room from JK to RJ to Blake Watson and Tyler Bedet that he’s not able to maximize that into carving a role in this offense. Something else is going on there. But to your point, Roy, I’m not so sure about him. And clearly Shawn Payeyton and company aren’t either. We’ve got one more here that I want to make sure I touch on from Michael. Let’s not forget those practices are accepted between the coaches. They discuss what they want to work on before practice. Tomorrow will show what’s up and really needs to be worked on. Yes, of course. That’s true. Scripted. Yeah, same thing. I see what you’re saying there, Michael. And you’re right. These guys, Kyle Shanahan, Shawn Payeyton, VJ, uh, etc., they get together and map all of this out. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t take things or glean things away from these practices cuz inevitably they are playing team periods and seven on seven and nine on seven and all of that. And you’re getting to see what they look like against not their fellow teammates against another scheme other playmakers on both sides of the ball. But the preseason game itself is probably where you can get some of the better evaluation for your own squad. But even then, there’s nuance to it because how much are Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers going to play their starters? And so if if Bo Knicks and the first team offense or the first team defense, go out there and just look absolutely dominant, but it’s not against the true 49ers first team, even if it’s only for a series or two or whatever the rep count is, how much of that has an asterisk attached to it. So, there is going to be a lot to glean from tomorrow’s game, which I think is 6:30 Mountain time, if I’m not mistaken, uh, here locally in Colorado. And I know for sure that we here at 1043 The Fan and atports.com will be locked in and ready to provide you with every nook and cranny and angle that you need to help the evaluation process start for this 2025 Broncos squad. So stay locked in to Denver sports 1043 the fan with Stokeley and Evans with Mark Schlareith do and Cecil the drive with Zach Bay and Philip Lindseay Denver sports tonight everything going on at denverports.com there is almost so much content at denverports.com about the Broncos Nuggets ABS Buffs Rockies I guess Rams etc all things Denver sports is is being pumped through denverports.com with the likes of Will Peterson Jake Shapiro James Marilad Andrew Mason, Cecil Lammy, Trent Finnegan, who writes articles and content faster than I can even think it in my own brain. Plus, all of our social media channels with shows here like The Rundown, Denver Sports Daily with Joey, Orange and Blue Today with Mace and Cecil, a and the litany of other content that we have there for you. Stay locked in with us here. Football season is upon us. The preseason officially kicks off tomorrow for the Denver Broncos, and we will catch you all on Monday with the latest. I do what I love. I love what I do.

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