Former Broncos draft pick may be reviving NFL career with Cowboys in 2024

With the lack of success the Denver Broncos have had as a team in recent years, there are a lot of former players to be keeping tabs on elsewhere around the league. The Broncos may have had one of the best overall classes back in the 2018 NFL Draft and the class simply took a little bit longer to develop than anyone hoped or expected.

Part of that 2018 NFL Draft class was third-round running back Royce Freeman, who was once an absolute stud at Oregon and a favorite of the Broncos in the pre-draft process. Freeman had a tremendous rookie camp for the Broncos and would have been their unquestioned RB1 going into the season had it not been for an otherworldly offseason from undrafted free agent Phillip Lindsay.

Lindsay ended up being the Broncos' leading rusher as a rookie and the first-ever undrafted rookie Pro Bowl running back in league history, but Freeman had a strong rookie year in his own right and was expected to continue taking on a bigger role as his career progressed.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The Broncos replaced Freeman during the 2020 offseason with Melvin Gordon, and the former third-round pick out of Oregon started to bounce around the league. He became a journeyman rather quickly, bouncing around from the Panthers to the Texans to the Rams. In Los Angeles, we finally started to see signs of life from Freeman, albeit in limited work.

After a couple of years barely being able to reach three yards per carry, Freeman averaged 4.1 yards per attempt and scored a couple of rushing touchdowns as a member of the Rams. It wasn't much, but he was able to secure a spot on the Dallas Cowboys' 90-man roster in 2024 and has been able to impress the coaching staff early in training camp.

"He (Freeman) does everything well… He’s got very good hands. Has a very high understanding of the game and, also, he has a chance to be one of our primary players on special teams. So, he’s a really good fit for us."

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy on Royce Freeman

Perhaps Freeman owes a debt of gratitude to the Denver Broncos, in a way. Although the Broncos are the reason he's bounced around the league, they also got him his start playing special teams back in 2020. Before the 2020 season, Freeman played zero special teams snaps. He played 164 special teams snaps for the Rams last year, a career-high.

With his combination of size, experience, special teams ability, and three-down traits, Freeman is in line to not only make the Dallas Cowboys' roster but probably play a bigger role than anyone anticipated. Zeke Elliott is their top back right now followed by the likes of Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn. Freeman could easily beat those other guys for a job and maybe revive his career as a whole.