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Phillip Lindsay

Receiving production could rise under Shurmur

The Broncos have hired Pat Shurmur as their offensive coordinator, and that could be a positive for Phillip Lindsay. Lindsay has started his career with back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, but he hasn't been a big part of the passing game either year. That could change.

Cecil Lamney of Denver Sports Radio 104.3 says he talked with Shurmur, and the new coach believes Lindsay -- who caught 35 passes in each of his first two seasons, so a little over 2 per game -- could double that total in 2020. That's probably optimistic, but some improvement is certainly reasonable. If so, Lindsay starts to look like a possible top-10 to 15 fantasy back in Denver's offense.

Shurmur has overseen offenses for five different teams over the last 11 years, as either offensive coordinator or head coach. All of those offenses heavily utilized running backs as pass catchers.

RBS AS RECEIVERS, SHURMUR OFFENSES
YearPlayerNoYdsTD
2009Steven Jackson, St.L.513220
2010Steven Jackson, St.L.463830
2011Clev. (3 different RBs)594170
2012Trent Richardson, Clev.513671
2013LeSean McCoy, Phil.525392
2014McCoy/Sproles, Phil.685420
2015DeMarco Murray/Sproles, Phil.997102
2016Jerick McKinnon/Matt Asiata, Minn.755182
2017Jerick McKinnon, Minn.514212
2018Saquon Barkley, NYG917214
2019Saquon Barkley, NYG524382

Cleveland in 2011 gave three different running backs (Hillis, Hardesty, Ogbonnaya) at least four starts. Note that sometimes multiple running backs had large receiving roles, and Denver also has Royce Freeman. Nobody should expect a Barkley-like receiving workload out of Lindsay.

But the running backs should be bigger parts of the passing game in 2020, and that's a plus for the team's best back. That's been Lindsay in each of his first two seasons, and should be the case again.

--Andy Richardson

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