The Denver Broncos running back room could be a huge x-factor in the 2025 NFL Season. Let's predict the room's depth chart. Two major faces have been added to the room in RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins. Harvey was the 60th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft out of UCF, and JK Dobbins was a free agency signing in June.
Guys like Audric Estime and Jaleel McLaughlin are also likely to have some sort of role in the room in the 2025 NFL Season, and as we know, Sean Payton does love to deploy multiple running backs, so we could see a ton of faces rotating in and out of the backfield.
But what might be the most interesting part of this all is how the depth chart primarily looks throughout the season. Let's predict how it'll look this season.
Predicting the Broncos' RB room for the 2025 NFL Season
As of now, when Week 1 kicks off, the team's RB rotation will probably look something like this:
JK Dobbins
RJ Harvey
Jaleel McLaughlin
Audric Estime
One major reason why Dobbins could be the de-facto RB1 over Harvey is Dobbins' high-end ability in pass protection. That's still a work in progress for the rookie. Dobbins could get the first crack at the carries most weeks, but with his injury history, it could only be a matter of time before Harvey ends up getting a RB1 workload.
With McLaughlin and Estime, Denver is dealing with two different running backs here, but McLaughlin has proven to be a more versatile player as a pass catcher and a shifty runner, so the Broncos may envision Estime last in the pecking order for the time being, but he's also still a young player, so he could progress in 2025.
It also would not shock me to see all four backs getting multiple carries in a given week. Another massive advantage the Broncos could see from this room is the amount of depth - most NFL teams would struggle to field a legitimate one-two punch, but both McLaughlin and Estime could provide as good of a depth option as you could possibly get in the NFL.
Right now, the Broncos' RB room is trending upward and probably deploys a depth chart like we just covered above.