Somewhat understandably lost in the shuffle of the news that the Denver Broncos had lost starting linebacker Alex Singleton for the entire 2024 season was the news that the team had officially signed running back Tyler Badie to the 53-man roster. After his performance in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the move was as obvious as it was justified.
Badie led the Broncos against the Bucs with 70 rushing yards on just nine carries, one of those nine carries going for 43 yards and the most impressive run of the year. Impressive runs have been hard to come by for the Broncos in 2024 and Badie currently has the only hot hand other than the team's leading rusher: quarterback Bo Nix.
Tyler Badie officially signed to Broncos 53-man roster
And here to clear up the most important stuff is the man himself, Tyler Badie, to alert everyone of the official pronunciation of his name which he personally changed due to reasons that are still unknown at this point...
Once and for all, Broncos RB Tyler Badie clears up the pronunciation of his surname:
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) September 25, 2024
"'Buh-DAY," he said.
It hasn't always been that way.
"I actually changed it myself," he said. "But there's some other things going on, some family things that I'll talk about later on." pic.twitter.com/IGLqlKYZuS
However Badie wants us to pronounce his name, everybody in Broncos Country just wants to see #28 blowing by defenders for big gains.
Badie has averaged over eight yards per carry in a limited sample over two games (10 total carries) but has easily provided the Broncos with their best spark at the position. It's more than just breaking off a couple of big runs -- Badie has shown the best vision and burst out of the Broncos' backs to consistently play this year.
The play of Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin -- who are each averaging 2.2 yards per carry so far this season -- has been more than concerning. It's been detrimental to the offense.
With rookie Audric Estimé going down in Week 1 (and hopefully back soon) the Broncos are being forced to go with whatever is working. And right now, that's Badie. It will be fascinating to see what happens when Estimé returns to the fold as the Broncos would then have six total backs on the roster including fullback Michael Burton.
Could we see something surprising like Javonte Williams getting cut? That would be wild because of how effective Williams is on the passing downs, but you never know. He's gone 13 straight games averaging less than four yards per carry. At this point, that's not proof of an NFL-caliber back.
Sean Payton and the Broncos obviously have some big decisions to make upcoming, but promoting Badie to the 53 was one of their easiest given his performance the last two games.