Badie Heads Into Week 3 as Denver's Lead Back, and There Is No One Behind Him

Tyler Badie is active. That is the good news, and it is also the entirety of the good news. With RJ Harvey out and J.K. Dobbins still working through his injury, Badie — who logged a handful of catches last season but no rushing production worth counting — is what Denver is running out at running back for Week 3. The depth chart behind him lists Cody Schrader third. Neither player has meaningful production from last season to point to.

This was the vulnerability I flagged heading into training camp and again when Dobbins first showed up on the injury report. There is no viable depth behind the starter at running back — that was true when Dobbins was healthy, and it is considerably more true now that he isn't. The Broncos extended Dobbins in the offseason and built their ground game around him. They did not build a contingency.

Bo Nix is back and active, which matters. He can carry an offense. But asking a quarterback recovering from his second shoulder surgery to compensate for a collapsed backfield, behind a line that lost its starting center to injured reserve before the season began, is a lot of weight to put on one shoulder. Denver won 14 games last year in part by winning close games at an unsustainable rate. Week 3 is arriving with the backfield looking like a genuine liability, and there is no move on the wire that fixes it quickly.