By Parker Gabriel

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Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

Hey Parker, it was great to see our running game actually work for once. J.K. Dobbins is looking like he’s our best offseason pickup. Just patient and waiting for holes to open up. Do you think we’ll re-sign him?

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week.

Indeed, the Broncos got their running game into gear early in the game Monday night and kept it humming most of the game. Even in their second-best rushing game under head coach Sean Payton by yardage, the Broncos hit midway through the fourth quarter with twice as many drop-backs as called runs. It goes to show a couple of things: You don’t have to hand it off 45 times to have an effective run game, but also, if you run the ball effectively, it naturally opens up everything else rather than trying to force all of your passing concepts early in a game.

Obviously, Denver is going to face tougher tests than Cincinnati’s beleaguered defense — like, for example, Sunday at Philadelphia — but it’s a blueprint to try to build off of, at least.

As for Dobbins, he’s been a terrific addition to the Broncos backfield. His efficiency metrics — an NFL-best 11 carries of 10-plus yards and a 5.7 per carry average — start to show that the Broncos were right to think they had a good offensive line and needed an overhaul among the ballcarriers. But Dobbins has done more than just that. He brings energy and leadership, and he’s got a terrific combination of patience and decisiveness once he sees what he wants to do.

As for re-signing him, he looks and feels like a candidate right now, but let’s give it three months before getting to that kind of thought process. There’s just not much reason to go down that road at this point.

Along somewhat related lines, for all the talk about the 100-yard streak ending, the 186 total yards and tweak Payton made to get Dobbins and rookie R.J. Harvey more consecutive snaps between substitutions, there’s another element here that is worth mentioning.

That’s that Harvey ended up with 33 snaps compared to Dobbins’ 36 — the most even workload split between the two this season.

That’s important not just because of the change in the usage sequencing Payton and players talked about Monday night, but because of the actual workloads at play.

Dobbins says he feels great, and it’s impressive how positive he is on a daily basis despite all of the injuries in his history. Perhaps he’ll go on a run here of injury-free play.

In the meantime, though, the reality is he hasn’t played more than 13 games since his rookie season, and he’s coming off a 2024 campaign in which he set a new high-water mark with 227 combined touches. Through four games, he’s on pace for 263 this season.

Harvey, of course, has his own developmental track and sizable expectations given the Broncos drafted him No. 60 overall in April’s draft, but his ability to earn and maintain the kind of trust that leads to a relatively even workload going forward is important as it pertains to keeping Dobbins fresh, too.

Lather, rinse, repeat? Parker, it is disappointing to see what appears to be the same problems from last year and the year before and the year before, happening with the team this year. Seems like the Broncos still don’t have a tight end, still can’t run the ball and still can’t stop the run. Would you agree? Please tell me that I’m wrong.

— Frank, Frisco, Texas

Hey Frank, thanks for writing. And you’re wrong. Well, at least on two of the three counts. Or two-ish.

They showed Monday night that they can run the ball. The bigger question all along in my mind has been whether Payton is willing to commit to running it even when the going is tough early in games. We could start to see more data on that question against the Eagles on the road.

As for the rushing defense, the Broncos have struggled against Indianapolis and Jonathan Taylor each of the past two seasons — including Week 2 last month — but otherwise have been really stout. In fact, they led the NFL in several rushing defense metrics last season.

In the early going this year, they’re 11th overall in rushing yards allowed per game, tied for 17th in per carry allowed and sixth in EPA/rush allowed. With still a relatively small sample size at hand, that helps paint a picture of how they’ve been pretty good down to down, but the big plays like Taylor’s 69-yard gallop have hurt. So, some good and some bad there, but overall, Denver’s done a pretty good job so far of surviving without Malcolm Roach in their defensive rotation. Oh, and he’s eligible to return from injured reserve as early as this week.

There’s no question this weekend provides a huge test against the Eagles and Saquon Barkley. Philly, quite surprisingly, is 29th in the NFL so far at 3.5 yards per carry.

Tight end… yeah, that’s still an issue. Let’s see what it looks like with Evan Engram over the next few weeks. He didn’t put up big numbers on Monday night, but seven targets is certainly more along the lines of what most expected. He still played just 43% of snaps, but he’s dealt with calf and back issues already, so perhaps all of the numbers will still trend up some in the next few games. It was the first time this season that Engram and Nate Adkins have both been available, and that led Lucas Krull to being inactive. Adam Trautman played 42 snaps, Engram 35 and Adkins 34. That’s a better mix than earlier in the season, but it could still tilt more toward Engram and Adkins depending on game flow and situation.

In 2024, Broncos tight ends averaged three catches per game for 28.6 yards. The year before was even worse: 2.3 catches and 21.3 yards.

It’s still early this season for fully relying on trend data, but so far this season, Broncos tight ends are averaging 4.5 catches and 32.3 yards.

What is the long-term answer at tight end?

— Marvin, Pea Ridge, Ark.

Marvin, have you seen Kenyon Sadiq play at Oregon?

Lotta ballgame left in both the NFL season and the college season, but at this point, it’d be something of a surprise if Sadiq is actually still on the board when the Broncos pick next spring.

The sentiment, though, is the same either way. It’s a position Denver is likely going to have to address in the draft, free agency or both again next offseason in order to truly fortify for the future.

The Broncos have a lottery ticket in seventh-round rookie and converted college basketball player Caleb Lohner, but they don’t have a guy who you look at and say, “yup, he’s definitely the future of the position.”

The Broncos have already experienced how much a player at that position can matter to an offense with rookie Tyler Warren in Indianapolis, who has given the Colts an added dimension to go with their young receiving corps and Taylor in the backfield. If you can find a guy willing to block in the run game like Warren, all the better.

So far, this upcoming tight end draft class doesn’t get the same kind of love as last year’s, where Warren and Colston Loveland were first-round locks the entire fall and several others like Mason Taylor, Terrence Ferguson and Elijah Arroyo all ended up in the second round, too.

The Broncos, naturally, will continue to develop players like Lohner and Adkins, and they’ve got a player they think fits their system really well in Engram under contract this year and next. Trautman’s been a steadily available player since Payton got here.

Parker, I’ve noticed some players involved in the Russell Wilson trade are now with other teams. Any of them still with Seattle? Any out of the league? Thanks.

— Fred Waiss, Prairie du Chien, Wis.

Hey Fred, thanks for writing, and good question. All three players involved in the original trade have moved around since, but they’re all still playing. TE Noah Fant is on the Bengals but was out with a concussion Monday night in Denver. DL Shelby Harris is playing his third season in Cleveland and in Week 3 blocked Green Bay’s game-tying field goal attempt in the final minute. That block came against Packers kicker Brandon McManus, to continue the former-Broncos theme. QB Drew Lock is actually back in Seattle this year, but only after spending 2024 with the New York Giants.

Of the five picks Seattle got, though, four players are still with the organization, and they all are or have been regular starters. They are S Devon Witherspoon, OLB Boye Mafe, OT Charles Cross and LB Derick Hall.

Can we talk about that Bo Nix interception in the end zone? That was ugly. Who was he throwing to? It would’ve been way behind RJ Harvey, and Troy Franklin was pretty much out of the play at that point. I don’t know why we didn’t just give it to Harvey or J.K. Dobbins to try to run it in.

— Mark, Arvada

Yeah, Mark, really nothing good happened on that fourth-and-2 snap for Nix and the Broncos.

The Browns had Denver’s receivers — trips to the right with Courtland Sutton in the slot, Trent Sherfield No. 2 and Troy Franklin outside — manned up.

Sutton turned inside like he was going to block and then didn’t really release to the backside or turn his opening steps into a route.

Sherfield looked like he was in position to maybe help rub or pick No. 44, who had running back RJ Harvey out of the backfield. Franklin ran a slant at first and then worked back to the back-right corner of the end zone after the play started to break down.

Tight end Adam Trautman started on the left of the formation but worked down the line of scrimmage to the right, looking for either the shovel pass type of action early or just as another option along the goal line.

Nix booted to his right and was looking for Harvey in the flat, but Knight had good coverage, and Sherfield didn’t cause any mess to work through, either. Trautman was covered immediately, too.

It certainly looked as though Nix would have had a chance to get to the pylon if he’d kept it and run, though there was pursuit and Knight was starting to come off of Harvey as Nix got outside the numbers.

In hindsight, getting stopped short of the goal line would have been a better failure than a pick in the end zone that comes out to the 20-yard line.

Nix also could have squeezed the ball in to Franklin had he let it go a beat earlier. Instead, the functional outcome was that Knight defended Harvey, dissuaded Nix from trying to get to the pylon, and then stepped into the passing lane to pick off the pass toward Franklin. Quite a play.

The Broncos could also have gone back to the run, as you suggested. They’d just run Harvey on a Wild Cat snap for no gain. That was his first goal-line carry of the season.

Denver’s run 13 plays from the 10-yard line and in so far this season, and is about even run-pass at seven rushes and six called passes (plus an OPI Week 3 against Troy Franklin that doesn’t officially count as a play).

Running the ball in the low-red zone is tough business. Dobbins has five carries for 7 yards and a TD inside the 10-yard line, though three of them have gone for minus-1 or no yards. Nix got one on a QB draw against the Chargers on first-and-goal from the 6 and then scored on a 6-yard scramble that was a called pass play against Cincinnati.

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