People sometimes share the results of their early fantasy drafts on Twitter and elsewhere, and there are websites like fantasyfootballcalculator that show average draft position data. And one guy who I'm definitely surprised about where he's being selected is Broncos rookie Royce Freeman.
The Broncos have Freeman and a pair of holdovers, Devontae Booker and DeAngelo Henderson. And Vance Joseph seems to be planning to use a committee of at least two and possibly three running backs.
“We want two or three guys to be our main core backs,” Joseph said during a team minicamp. Setting aside that it seems like kind of an oxymoron -- clearly you don't want any of those guys to be your "main" back -- it seems pretty clear that those who select any of the three as a starter will be disappointed.
Freeman is being taken somewhere around the fourth or fifth round, and that looks crazy. I sympathize with those who argue that Booker has shown almost nothing at the NFL level, and that Henderson hasn't done anything. But third-rounder Freeman wasn't selected so high to say he should be counted on to run away with the starting job. And Joseph's words suggest the team isn't looking for that anyway.
Best you can say is that the Broncos wanted Booker to be their lead back a year ago. Instead he suffered a wrist injury early on, spent most of the seaosn in a secondary role behind C.J. Anderson, and averaged just 3.8 yards per carry. So maybe Freeman will quickly seize the job and, uh, run with it.
But I won't be the one drafting him early enough to find out. I'd much rather use a very late pick on Henderson, rather than assume Freeman (or Booker) will be a breakout performer, or that Joseph is just blowing smoke when he talks about "two or three" main backs.
--Andy Richardson