The Denver Broncos may not have a major burning roster question right now, but there are some smaller questions that this team needs to hammer out before the regular season begins, or, at minimum, figure out during the season.
Given how solidified everything is with this franchise heading into 2026, the urgency only gets higher, as this win-now window is not something that is easy to come by, and many windows close rapidly, so the 2026 campaign could end up being one of the more important in team history.
Right now, the Broncos are essentially breaking until training camp, which begins in about one month. Even with not much going on right now, the 2026 season, and the Broncos' ceiling during the season, may already be hinging on this burning question.
How will the Denver Broncos sort out the running back hierarchy this season?
You could surely take a fine-tooth comb to this roster and probably find more burning questions that the team will have to answer, but that is the case for every team in the league, even the best ones. The Broncos don't have many of these questions, and it's a testament to just how well-run this team is, especially in the front office.
But when you take a larger look, an aerial view of this group, you don't find much to be concerned with, but there is a burning question right in the middle of the running back room, a group that looks totally different now than it did when Sean Payton arrived back in 2023.
Denver signed J.K. Dobbins in the 2025 NFL Offseason, and that came shortly after using a second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on RJ Harvey. The Broncos clearly thought that more help was needed, as they then used a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Jonah Coleman.
As it stands now, the Broncos are very likely going to deploy Dobbins, Harvey, and Coleman as the primary running backs for Denver, perhaps giving 100 percent of the snaps at the position to this trio.
But the burning question here is how the Broncos plan on sorting this out to maximize efficiency. The one thing that could go against the room here is if all three players end up being viable options. They'd have a lot of mouths to feed and could end up not allowing any of them to get in a rhythm.
If all three are efficient, that means all three need to see snaps. It would be a good problem to have, but you'd also risk none of them standing out overall. The other question here, and this is the obvious one, is the health of Dobbins. Broncos fans don't need to be reminded of just how good Dobbins was across his 10 games in 2025, as he was averaging five yards per carry and was on pace for over 1,300 yards on the ground.
The funny thing here is that quarterback Bo Nix really began to heat up the last month of the season, and that was done without much of a run game. The potential ceiling for the Broncos on offense is quite ridiculous if the running game can get sorted out and remain efficient during the season.
With Coleman now in the mix, though, it feels semi-likely that the Broncos won't give Dobbins as many carries. The idea there would be his chances of remaining on the field would increase, as he's simply not taking as many hits, making as many cuts, etc.
But at moment, it's far from a guaratee that Harvey or Coleman would be efficient enough for the team in 2026 to warrant giving Dobbins fewer carries. Broncos Country may not care who gets the ball in the backfield, but they may instead care that the unit is efficient overall.
With defenses now getting better at taking away the deep pass, the running game has seen a bit of a revival in recent years. The Broncos front office has also made a trio of notable moves to attempt to fix this position, and whether it's fixed or not in 2026 would show us, one way or another, what the team's ceiling is for 2026.
Add us as a preferred source on Google