Denver Broncos didn’t sign Theo Riddick after visit

The Denver Broncos had veteran running back Theo Riddick in the building for a visit on Monday, but he left without signing a contract.

The Denver Broncos had veteran running back Theo Riddick in the building for a visit and a physical on Monday morning, but he apparently left team headquarters without signing a contract.

Well, this is a bummer, considering a few of us here had some write-ups done on Riddick signing and the fallout of the move elsewhere on the roster.

Perhaps it will still happen at some point, but for now, someone’s roster spot is safe and nothing has changed from Saturday for the Broncos as it relates to the roster.

So why bring in Theo Riddick in the first place? What’s the deal here? Don’t the Broncos have their running back spot pretty well set?

The Broncos’ running back depth chart (which was also released on Monday) has Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman on top followed by Devontae Booker, Khalfani Muhammad, Devontae Jackson, and Dave Williams.

Among that group, Riddick — by a long shot — has the most experience. He was a sixth-round draft pick in 2013 of the Detroit Lions, and has spent his entire NFL career there prior to this year.

The player on the Broncos’ roster who has been in the league the longest in 2016 fourth-round pick Devontae Booker.

In many ways, Riddick is seemingly not much of an upgrade over Booker and what he brings to the table, at least in terms of a pure ‘strengths and weaknesses’ outlook.

Riddick is more receiver than runner at this point in his career, but he’s very good at it. He can also stand in and pass protect, and as a former wide receiver, he can line up out wide or work out of the slot.

What sets Riddick apart from Booker — or at least what has set Riddick apart in the last five years — is his effectiveness on a per snap basis. These are some pretty fun numbers.

One area Devontae Booker has not been nearly as strong as Riddick through the years? Making defenders miss. Although, last year, Booker was better than Riddick in that category. Both players had 13 missed tackles forced but Riddick had more touches than Booker (101-72).

Therefore, it stands to reason the Broncos were merely kicking the tires on Riddick or feel like he can return to his 2017 form, when he forced 23 missed tackles in the open field as a receiver (third-most in the NFL) and had the sixth-most missed tackles forced in the entire league at running back.

The Broncos’ offense is going to be incorporating the running backs as receivers. We’ve seen in training camp a number of times everyone split out wide, including Royce Freeman, whose game is certainly not played out wide.

He’s getting out of his comfort zone a bit.

But everyone is going to need to catch passes because this offense calls for it, and Joe Flacco has historically been very good throwing the ball to running backs.

We’ll see if the Broncos decide to re-visit Riddick at some point but this even being a possibility raises some eyebrows.