Denver Broncos running back Melvin Gordon has fulfilled his first contract with the team and he will be an unrestricted free agent when the new league year begins in March.
In two seasons with the Denver Broncos, Melvin Gordon has been a steady producer on offense. Though he’s not quite the game-breaking runner many thought he would be as a first-round pick in 2015, he has run for 1,904 yards in two seasons with the Broncos.
Gordon has also found the end zone a total of 20 times during his two-year stint with the Broncos but the team will clearly be looking to get Javonte Williams even more involved next year. The rookie was incredibly impressive this season and may have been the team’s overall most valuable player.
However, Gordon could be a bit expensive for a No.2 running back if that is how the team sees him and the decision to re-sign him or not is going to be a difficult one for many reasons.
While Gordon has been a solid piece of the team’s offense, it is hard to discount his seven lost fumbles in two seasons with the team, which is just far too many. Some of those fumbles, like the one in the 2021 season finale against the Kansas City Chiefs, have come at the most inopportune times.
Should the Broncos decide to move on from Gordon, there are several soft landing spots for him to potentially be in place.
Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins have gone a while now since having a true No.1 running back and though Myles Gaskin can make some plays, you could do a lot better in that area.
Both Phillip Lindsay and Malcolm Brown will be free agents this offseason, leaving the Dolphins as one of the teams that could be looking for a new runner as much as anyone.
Gaskin led the team with 612 yards rushing this season. No.2 was Duke Johnson, who was a late-season addition and played in just five games.
The Dolphins could really help out their young quarterback Tua Tagavailoa but giving him a more dependable, sturdier running back and Gordon fits the bill.
The Dolphins have pushed for a playoff spot in each of the last two years so Gordon could join a team looking to contend and he would probably enjoy playing in that warm Florida weather as well.
The Dolphins also have more available cap space than any team in the league as of this moment, according to Spotrac, and should be busy on the free-agent market this year.
Houston Texans
There might not be a team in the league with a worse running back situation than the Texans, who were down to using Rex Burkhead as their lead back toward the end of this season.
The Texans have tried a few castoffs from the Broncos in Lindsay and Royce Freeman, but that hasn’t led to much of anything in the way of results on the field.
David Johnson is a shell of the player he was in Arizona and will also be a free agent, leaving the Texans to be searching for what could be multiple running backs, in addition to figuring out what they are going to do with Deshaun Watson.
It might be tough to convince free agents to come to play in Houston with the state of that franchise right now, but with the right head coach hire and if they could come up with enough money to throw at a guy like Gordon, it’s clear he would get a huge opportunity to be a bell-cow running back again, and at this stage in his career, that’s something that won’t come around much.
New York Jets
Unlike the Texans and Dolphins, the Jets do seem to have something in the way of a future star in Michael Carter, their fourth-round pick from this past season and a former college teammate of Javonte Williams.
But behind him, the Jets don’t have much as Tevin Coleman will be a free agent and the combination of Ty Johnson and Lamical Perine seems to be closer to depth guys on the roster than regular contributors.
But a veteran like Gordon could come in and spell Carter and give the Jets a very formidable one-two punch.
The Jets also have more available cap space than all but four teams in the league as of right now, so they should be able to be active players in free agency.
Gordon can be a tough, hard-nosed runner when he needs to be and that fits the brand of football that head coach Robert Saleh wants in New York. This move would make a lot of sense for the Jets if they could pull it off.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens were hit hard with injuries to their backfield this season and two of them were before the regular season even kicked off as JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards were both lost to devastating injuries.
Justice Hill then went down as well and the Ravens were scrapping just to field enough running backs to play on game day, which ultimately make have cost them a spot in the postseason.
The Ravens brought in veterans such as Le’Veon Bell, Latavius Murray and Devonta Freeman and actually got decent production out of both Murray and Freeman, but both of them will be free agents this offseason.
The Ravens may want to get ahead of things this year and get a solid insurance policy in place by bringing in a guy like Gordon in the event injuries prevent Dobbins and Edwards from returning to form.
It could be a tough sell to Gordon in terms of convincing him he would get a lot of playing time, but at worst, he would be the team’s No. 2 running back and it is an offense that running backs can thrive in as Greg Roman constructs one of the most diverse rushing attacks in the league.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons thought they had made one of the best under-the-radar signings of the 2021 offseason when they brought in Mike Davis, but he was average at best for the team while Cordarrelle Patterson, a converted receiver, flourished as a running back.
But Patterson is set to be a free agent and will be one of the more interesting names on the market but even if the Falcons were to bring him back, signing a guy like Gordon makes sense as it would bolster a backfield to help Matt Ryan or a rookie quarterback should the team decide to go that route.
The Falcons have a thin backfield so Gordon would not have to compete for carries on this team and as Patterson proved, this team can run the ball, but they still ranked 31st in the league in rushing offense, with only the Texans behind them.
Look for general manager Terry Fontenot to make the running game a focal point of the offseason and with Gordon being one of the biggest and most attractive names on that list, it only makes sense to connect those dots.