The Broncos’ running back room looks nothing like it did when Sean Payton arrived in 2023, and that’s exactly why training camp has one real roster fight worth watching.
Denver has already done the heavy lifting at the position. Javonte Williams was allowed to leave in free agency in the spring of 2025, then the Broncos used a second-round pick on RJ Harvey.
J.K. Dobbins arrived later that summer, right as mandatory minicamp was wrapping up, and the team rode Harvey and Dobbins as its top two backs for the first 10 weeks of the season.
When Dobbins was lost to a season-ending foot injury in Week 10, Harvey moved into the RB1 role for the rest of the season and the playoffs.
The Broncos brought Dobbins back in March of 2026, and Payton made clear how important that move was.
“priority above all others.”
Then came another layer in April, when Denver drafted Jonah Coleman in the fourth round. Coleman gives the Broncos premium insurance behind Dobbins and another versatile piece to round out the top of the depth chart. If everyone is healthy, that trio should be the group that dresses on Sundays.
But there’s a catch. Under Payton, Denver has carried four true running backs on the 53-man roster, not counting the fullback, with the fourth man usually ending up inactive on game day. That means one spot is still up for grabs, and three backs are in the mix.
Jaleel McLaughlin has the clearest case. He’s the longest-tenured back in the room, joining the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2023, Payton’s first season on the job. He made the roster out of camp and has hung around ever since, even as his role has shifted.
Last season, McLaughlin opened as the No. 4 back and spent most of the year as a healthy scratch. Then Dobbins went down in Week 10, and McLaughlin jumped from the sideline to the No. 2 spot behind Harvey. He made the most of it, averaging 5.1 yards per carry down the stretch and giving Denver a bursty change-of-pace option.
The one thing that has kept McLaughlin from becoming more than that is his work as a receiver. For whatever reason, he has never been fully trusted in that part of the game, and that matters in a Payton offense.
Still, he’s been useful in each of the past three seasons, and the Broncos rewarded him with a one-year deal. Entering his fourth year, he looks like the favorite for the final roster spot.
Then there’s Jaleel Badie, who joined Denver before Payton did. The Broncos signed him off the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad after Baltimore had drafted him in the sixth round just months earlier. Payton liked him, especially as a pass-catching back, but Badie spent the 2023 season on the practice squad.
In 2024, Badie was positioned to take over lead-back duties behind Williams before a back injury in Week 4 ended that season. Last year, he was the No. 3 back ahead of McLaughlin, though when Dobbins went down, it was McLaughlin who got the bump.
Payton still likes Badie as a third-down option who can catch screen passes and checkdowns and use his burst to move the chains. He had only eight carries in 2025, even though he was active for 16 of 17 regular-season games.
That sets up a summer battle between McLaughlin and Badie, with McLaughlin’s hands and receiving likely to be the deciding factor. If he shows real growth there, it’s hard to see Badie getting the edge.
The third name in the mix is Audric Estime Schrader, an intriguing back who has bounced around but hasn’t yet gotten a real NFL chance to show what he can do. Schrader went undrafted out of Missouri in 2024, signed with the Los Angeles Rams, spent two years on their practice squad, then landed on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ active roster last September.
Jacksonville waived him two months later, the Houston Texans claimed him, then waived him a week after that. Denver claimed him off waivers, kept him on the active roster for a week, waived him again, re-signed him to the practice squad, and then brought him back on a futures contract after the season.
The production is there. In his final season at Missouri, Schrader ran for 1,627 yards and 14 touchdowns in the SEC.
Two years before that, he put up a 2,000-yard season at Division II Truman State University. The Broncos are still trying to find out how much of that can translate.
Coleman himself described the room as a “three-headed monster,” and that’s the shape of things now. Payton has long preferred a committee approach, and Denver’s top three backs give the offense real flexibility.
The downside for McLaughlin, Badie and Schrader is obvious: touches will be hard to come by. The upside is just as clear.
This is a deep room, and it’s not built around one star carrying everything.
The competition for the No. 4 job begins when veterans report for training camp on July 28, and once the pads come on, the picture should start to sharpen.
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