After the Denver Broncos' preseason victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Sean Payton may actually be left with an impossible roster decision. As we know at this point, Denver won the game against San Fran but definitely left a lot of meat on the bone.
No NFL game is going to be perfect, and for the Broncos, you would have loved to see the starters playing a bit better on both sides of the ball to open up the game, but this is the NFL, and no one is perfect.
All in all, Denver not playing well all game but still winning by 21 points is flat-out impressive and in this case is a huge testament to how good the team's depth is. Well, after preseason Week 1, does Sean Payton all of a sudden have an impossible roster decision to eventually make?
How does Sean Payton sort through the running back room?
Both Tyler Badie and Blake Watson made the most of their opportunities in the team's victory over the 49ers, but both Audric Estime and Jaleel McLaughlin were honestly non-factors. This running back room could be tough to figure out because of JK Dobbins and RJ Harvey being the top two players.
Denver drafted Harvey in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, and a couple of months later, signed JK Dobbins on a one-year deal. Those two are going to get the bulk of the carries, but all of Watson, Badie, Estime, and McLaughlin might be battling it out for just two remaining roster spots, as the Broncos probably end up keeping four backs.
You'd think that the easy choices here would be Estime and McLaughlin, but can we be so sure, especially since it seems like Tyler Badie is always making the most of the limited chances he's been given thus far in the NFL.
While my gut tells me Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime are the third and fourth backs for the Denver Broncos, this isn't something that should come easy for Payton and the coaching staff, but in the same way, it's a great problem to have as well.