The Denver Broncos' Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football was as bad as we have seen this team look in quite some time, perhaps since the loss to the Miami Dolphins back in the 2023 season.
It's flat-out shocking to have watched how poorly Denver played, and it's not just about the offense, as Vance Joseph's defense, despite being one of the more experienced units in the league, got worked by the Chiefs' offense.
But the Denver offense did not have a strong showing, either, and a very weird, perhaps even troubling running back trend developed during the game that needs to be fixed.
The Denver Broncos rotation at running back just did not make much sense
Besides the other 102 issues from this game, something that stuck out big-time was the flat-out weird running back usage throughout the evening. The Broncos just did not commit to the run in the first half despite the Chiefs doing exactly that, and while Denver did seem to at least attempt to establish the run in the second half, it was far too late.
In total, the team ran for just 61 yards and averaged 3.7 yards per play. J.K. Dobbins led the way with a rather efficient 36 yards on eight carries - that comes out to a respectable 4.5 yards per carry.
RJ Harvey had just three carries for 18 yards, and rookie Jonah Coleman did not register a single carry. Troy Franklin's lone touch in the game went into the stat sheet as a carry. He gained five yards on that play. Denver's run game just wasn't nearly good enough, but at the same time, Davis Webb didn't seem to have any sort of plan with the backfield.
Not only did he simply refuse to stick with Dobbins for any period of time, who is the best runner the Broncos had, but Coleman not getting a carry also feels a bit odd. I understand that went a game gets out of hand like it did in Week 1, you almost have to abandon the run, but the Broncos seemed to not really establish it in any manner to begin with.
The Broncos do appear to have three viable running backs, and all offseason, much of us talked about how this unit was finally going to emerge as a strength. Well, Week 1 showed us anything but that. One huge change Webb should look to make it to simply prioritize giving Dobbins and Coleman more carries.
Dobbins should ideally hover around 10 carries per game if possible, with Coleman and Harvey filling in the cracks as needed. Denver's weird running back rotation in Week 1 and overall mess of a backfield contributed to the team's loss.
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