Denver Broncos: Phillip Lindsay on pace for more carries, less yards

Phillip Lindsay was expected to get a reduced workload in his second season with the Denver Broncos, but that hasn’t been the case so far.

Last year, the Denver Broncos snagged local kid Phillip Lindsay off of the undrafted free agent market. He proved the league wrong. Following a rookie campaign that saw him rush for over 1,000 yards, he ended up making the trip to the Pro Bowl.

With a new coaching staff in Denver this year, things were bound to change. One of those things was expected to be Lindsay’s overall workload. However, that does not look to be the case a quarter through the season.

Through four games, Lindsay has rushed the football 54 times for 213 yards. He is on pace to carry the football 216 times for 851 yards and eight touchdowns.

So what is the problem here? Obviously the difference in all of those categories is concerning. Like many areas on the team, the rushing attack just can’t get going.

The Broncos offensive line has been a concern yet again and it needs to strongly be addressed. Teams also focus on the best players on the Broncos offense. They don’t seem to be afraid of the Broncos’ passing game, so stopping the run has become the main priority for them.

In week three at the Green Bay Packers, Lindsay rushed the ball 21 times for 81 total yards. That has been his best game so far this season.

Lindsay’s per-game carry average is lower this season, but not by much. Last year in fifteen games, he averaged 12.8 carries a game. In 2019, he is up to 13.5 carries per game. Teammate Royce Freeman’s average is 10.5 carries per game in 2019.

The biggest problem is that they have been behind a lot this year, as an 0-4 start makes pretty clear.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had possession of the football nineteen minutes longer (39:12) than the Broncos (20:48) in week four. With Leonard Fournette running all over them, the way to stop that was to, uh, stop it.

Denver blew a 17-3 lead over the Jaguars, and the lack of success in the run game was and has been a problem.

One thing that is an advantage for Lindsay is that fullback Andy Janovich is back from an injury that forced him to miss the first three weeks of the season. We will see if that has any effect on Lindsay’s performances from here on out.

I do not know if Lindsay will continue at this pace. Hopefully, something clicks on offense where he does not have to run the football so much but still has success. It would be a major disappointment if he ends the season with a lot less rushing yards than he did in his rookie season.