Payton Sends Message to Broncos RB Room Ahead of First Padded Practice

On Monday, things are about to get interesting at Denver Broncos training camp. Officially, it'll be Day 3 of Broncos camp, but what makes it special is the pads are going on.

That allows the Broncos coaching staff to get a better read on the trench players on both sides of the ball, the front-seven guys, and the running backs. While fans and media alike speculate on which players will rise to the top of Sean Payton's running-back-by-committee, the head coach said on Saturday that outside observers will be able to recognize who's shining and who isn't as easily as the coaches.

“It’s an easy position to evaluate," Payton said. "Once the pads come on and you get into the games and practice with other teams, I think it’s a position you guys will see as quickly as I will."

The Broncos have a young running back stable, with the sixth-year J.K. Dobbins currently atop the depth chart. The veteran is followed by rookie second-round RJ Harvey, and incumbents Audric Estime, Jaleel McLaughlin, Tyler Badie, and Blake Watson.

Denver's collection of backfield talent offers Payton and company a cornucopia of options. Still, someone has to separate and rise to the top.

"They all have different strengths, and I’m anxious to see," Payton said of his running backs. "We’ve kind of seen Dobbins on film in the pro game, but a lot of these guys are limited to small resumes, and I’m anxious to see how they perform.”

Last year, the Broncos' offensive line finished first in ESPN's run-block win rate, and yet, the team finished 16th in the NFL in rushing. Remove Bo Nix's 430 rushing yards, and it becomes an even more dismal reflection of Payton's rushing philosophy made manifest.

Payton's play-calling didn't seem uninspired, although there were a few times he had to be reminded (by himself) to actually call run plays, infamously writing "RUN IT!!" on the back of his play-call sheet.

The issue seemed to be the running backs. Namely, a lack of vision and explosiveness.

The Broncos hope they've rectified that issue by adding Dobbins and Harvey, but the run game, like all aspects of Payton's offense, will evolve each year.

“Sure. Every offseason," Payton said on Friday of tweaking the run game. "I’m looking down at script calls, for instance, that we weren’t calling a year ago. Maybe it’s a package of run that [it’s], ‘[If it’s] this, check to this.’ Every offseason, there’s that study, addition, and obviously, there’s always a subtraction. I would say in that offseason that we had, there are a few new things.”

Translation: aside from the new faces in the running back room, the Broncos' ground attack will feature some novel aspects. That phase of Payton's offense was so lackluster last season, that he and his coaches likely spent a lot of time figuring out how to augment it from a scheme standpoint this past spring.

“Certainly, there’s additions with the running back, but what we’re doing running the football is we have a series of RPOs, we have a series of two back offense, we have a series of one back," Payton said.