Denver Broncos: Royce Freeman making strides in year three

Denver Broncos running back Royce Freeman is making strides in year three.

With the addition of Melvin Gordon in free agency, Royce Freeman has been somewhat of an afterthought among Denver Broncos fans in 2020.

Freeman, a third-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, was one of the team’s bright stars in camp his rookie season, winning the starting running back job with some big runs in training camp and preseason play.

Even with Freeman’s emergence in 2018, the Broncos couldn’t ignore the development of Phillip Lindsay as well, and those two seemed poised to have success as a duo for the foreseeable future.

Freeman suffered an injury his rookie season which derailed a promising start to his career, and he struggled in year two with the Broncos to find any sustained success. Up to this point, Freeman has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game, but that doesn’t mean he has not shown well in other areas of his game.

One particularly surprising development with Freeman in 2019 was his involvement in the passing game. He was only targeted 20 times in his rookie season, but that number increased to a whopping 50 in his second year with the Broncos.

Of those 50 targets, Freeman caught 43 passes and one of those was a touchdown against the Houston Texans.

The Broncos obviously brought in Melvin Gordon as an upgrade over Freeman in the running game but Freeman could still have a significant role in the Broncos’ offense in 2020.

At this point, there is really no reason to consider Freeman a lost cause. He’s still a young player and no one on the Broncos over the last two seasons has been in any sort of ideal situation.

Freeman has struggled so far to emerge, but the Broncos have been somewhat bullish about including him when it comes to their running back rotation this year. Anytime someone mentions the Broncos’ 1-2 punch of Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay, coaches are quick to point out that Freeman is part of things as well.

Interestingly enough, the former power back out of Oregon could make his greatest mark on the 2020 Broncos as a receiver.

During the August 31 broadcast of Broncos practice, Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater noted that he thought there was significant improvement from Freeman shown this year at camp in his route running skills, and that is something he spent a lot of time working on this season.

Although the Broncos could probably trade Freeman for something decent, he has two years left on his contract and is probably more valuable on the roster than a future late-round draft pick.

If the Broncos have one injury at running back, Freeman will instantly be thrust into a much more prominent role, and if that happens, he could seize the opportunity and show more of his early 2018 form than what we saw last season.