What the Offseason Warned Us About, the Backfield Just Confirmed

J.K. Dobbins played ten games last season. Ten. In a 19-game campaign that carried Denver to the second seed in the AFC, the running back who anchors this entire ground game was available for barely half of it. That number was sitting in the box score all offseason, and the Broncos chose to build no meaningful insurance behind him.

Here is what the depth chart says right now: Dobbins at the top, Tyler Badie behind him with zero meaningful production from last season in the books, and Cody Schrader third. That is the entire running back room for a team that went 14–3 and genuinely believes it can contend. Badie caught 20 passes last year, which made him a receiving option out of the backfield — a role, not a replacement. Schrader is a name on a roster, not a solution. The depth analysis flagged this explicitly: no viable backup exists behind Dobbins. That is not a narrative judgment. That is the position group as it actually stands.

The offseason gave Denver every signal this was coming. Jaleel McLaughlin, who had carved out a niche as the change-of-pace option, ended up signing with Cleveland's practice squad — a fact the coverage noted and then moved past too quickly. Jonah Coleman was generating preseason buzz about backfield impact before landing on injured reserve. The Broncos entered this season having shed their depth and added nothing of consequence to replace it. When the beat was writing about Dobbins' extension in late June and quoting him about getting Denver to the Super Bowl, the fine print was that he had to stay on the field for that to mean anything.

What makes this particularly hard to wave away is the broader pattern it fits. Denver's 14–3 record last year was built on winning close games at a rate their actual point differential couldn't justify — a gap of nearly 18 percentage points between what they earned and what they got. That kind of luck doesn't travel. The Wild Card loss to New England, 7–10, was the first honest accounting. A running back room with no real depth is the second. These are not separate problems; they are the same problem wearing different clothes. The 2025 Broncos papered over structural fragility with timely wins. The 2026 version is being asked to do the same with fewer resources.

My read is that this was always the most predictable failure point on the roster, and it went unaddressed because the team was too busy celebrating a record that flattered them. RJ Harvey's dual-threat versatility — 597 rushing yards and seven touchdowns last year alongside his passing contributions — made him a valuable piece, but he is not a running back in the traditional sense, and leaning on him as one puts Nix's offense in a difficult posture. When the beat started tracking Harvey's availability concerns heading into Week 2, the backfield math got genuinely alarming. Now it's Week 4 territory, and the arithmetic hasn't improved. Dobbins has to stay healthy. That is not a plan. That is a prayer dressed up as one.