Phillip Lindsay said RBs will be involved heavily as receivers

Denver Broncos running back Phillip Lindsay, recovering from offseason surgery, said the RBs in the new offense will be required to catch passes.

Denver Broncos running back Phillip Lindsay has been progressing on schedule this offseason recovering from a pretty severe wrist injury that cut his rookie season short.

Lindsay was held out of team sessions at OTAs because of the injury, but got some valuable mental reps and was still able to go out and participate in individual position drills that didn’t compromise his recovery.

Lindsay was interviewed at Broncos OTAs by the media and was asked about everything from his recovery to what he thought about the team drafting his former Colorado teammate Juwann Winfree in the 2019 NFL Draft.

It was in his response when asked about Winfree that Lindsay revealed the Broncos’ running backs significant role in the passing game this year.

"“I was excited. Juwann’s my dude. Actually, before I got up here, I always did receiving routes from Juwann. He taught me a lot of certain fundamental things that I’ll go back, actually we’ll do over the summer. It’s good to pick receivers’ brains too because this offense, we’re almost all receivers.”Phillip Lindsay (quotes via Broncos PR)"

First of all, how cool is it that the Broncos’ rookie receiver is a good enough route runner to be teaching Lindsay a thing or two? Obviously, Lindsay is not a wide receiver by trade, but that speaks more to Winfree’s refined route running ability, something he put on display quite often at Colorado.

But it’s Lindsay’s comment about the offense the team is installing making the running backs ‘all receivers’.

That’s a pretty telling statement.

Lindsay scored the first touchdown of the Broncos’ 2018 season on a beautifully designed pass play, something we didn’t really see the rest of the season.

Lindsay’s involvement as a receiver beyond that point almost felt forced by design and was therefore predictable and ineffective.

The Broncos’ Pro Bowl running back didn’t even lead the team in targets at his own position last year. That distinction went to Devontae Booker, who has proven himself to be a very capable pass catching back but is nowhere the dynamic open-field threat Lindsay is.

Booker had 51 targets in the passing game compared to Lindsay’s 47. Royce Freeman was targeted 20 times and Andy Janovich was targeted just 10 times.

In my opinion, the Broncos need to find a way to make sure Lindsay is the most targeted running back in the passing game this year and also find a way to get Janovich more involved.

If this offense from Rich Scangarello calls for more refined route running from the backs, perhaps we will see Lindsay break through in that department in 2019.