After falling behind early against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, the Denver Broncos battled back but came up short in a 23-16 loss.
There were several bright spots in the loss, including Devaughn Vele hauling in four receptions for 78 yards, fellow receiver Troy Franklin scoring his first touchdown and running back Audric Estime rushing twice for 13 yards right after returning from injured reserve.
After the game, coach Sean Payton said he was eager to see more from the three rookies going forward.
“We have to see these guys,” Payton said. “We are a young team. I want to see this runner as well. I want to see Estime. We are going to see Vele and we are going to see Franklin. We are not waiting to redshirt these guys. We will continue to see each week their involvement in the plan and how they fit. That is how you get confidence and get experience.”
It was easier to get Vele and Franklin more involved on offense in Week 6 after Josh Reynolds was placed on injured reserve following finger surgery. Payton pumped the breaks a little bit on the possibility of Estime getting a bigger workload during his Monday conference call.
“Estime, that [was] his first week off of the short-term IR,” Payton said. “Working with two backs and feeding two backs is easy, and kind of what I’m used to and what a lot of teams do. It’s hard with three.
“We did want to get him some work and get him some reps. Obviously, we would’ve liked more had we had more snaps. That’s a little bit bigger challenge maybe than the receiver position.”
So perhaps we won’t see a huge number of carries for Estime this week, but after Javonte Williams lost a fumble and dropped a pass on Sunday, Estime’s stock will be worth monitoring in the coming weeks. Vele and Franklin are already trending up.
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