Pritchard: Broncos may need RB bodies if Freeman doesn’t show growth
Feb 5, 2019, 3:51 PM | Updated: Feb 6, 2019, 7:40 am
A highly-touted third-round running back out of Oregon, Royce Freeman was supposed to be the answer at running back for the Denver Broncos in 2018. That is until fellow rookie Phillip Lindsay, an undrafted back out of Colorado, took the job and never looked back.
Freeman was the one who rushed for 5,621 yards in college. He was the one who finished training camp atop the Broncos depth chart. But, in the same amount of starts, Freeman’s 521 yards on the ground were eclipsed by Lindsay’s 1,037-yard season.
“Royce Freeman in college, you’ve got to wash that away and you’ve got to look at Royce Freeman as a pro. And last year as a pro, I didn’t see what I needed to see,” said “Pritchard and Cecil” co-host Cecil Lammey on Tuesday.
Lammey’s co-host, Mike Pritchard, said that “it didn’t look natural” for Freeman in his rookie season, that it felt like “he was a guy in a shell.”
“Did he know the playbook? Yeah. Did he miss a lot of assignments? I don’t think so. I mean, he dropped the ball a few times, and that’s going to happen as a rookie,” Pritchard said. “But, just playing the game in a natural state, that was absent from Royce Freeman.”
Now, under the guidance of running backs coach Curtis Modkins, one of the few holdovers from the Broncos 2018 staff, and new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, Pritchard said something may “unlock” for Freeman and “accelerate his growth.”
“… If he improves, if he does become that every-down guy or that guy that they can rely on, now it opens up more for Phillip Lindsay to be more dynamic for your offense, to be more explosive,” Pritchard said.
But if that’s not the case, Pritchard said the Broncos “might need to look for other bodies to help out that running back room.”
“Explore other options and be ready,” Lammey said. “Be ready, because this running game needs to be on point and Phillip Lindsay needs a running back mate, needs a partner in that backfield.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
