Job Battles: Bronco Prospects Making Noise

There's admittedly not a whole lot of news regarding the fantasy-relevant positional battles in the past week, but there are a few situations developing in the case of recognizable depth players. Injuries or the generally unexpected could result in the following players logging meaningful snaps this year, and this post will account for the nature of those players at least.

RUNNING BACKS

Devontae Booker vs. Khalfani Muhammad vs. Devontae Jackson, DEN

Denver press sure seems to push a lot of hype for Broncos fringe prospects. Sometimes it turns out to be noise (DeAngelo Henderson), and other times (Phillip Lindsay) it turns out to be one hundred percent true.

Among the recipients of this year's hype are Muhammad, an accomplished track sprinter at California and 2017 seventh-round pick of the Titans. He bounced from there to the New England and Broncos organizations since then. Muhammad is very obviously fast, but in college he struggled to earn playing time over players like Vic Enwere and Tre Watson. You've never heard of them? I barely remember them myself. Daniel Lasco was a better college running back at California, and he's out of the league at the moment.

Jackson also strikes me as an underdog relative to Booker in the battle for Denver's RB3 role, but I like his chances better than Muhammad's. Jackson was a four-year standout at West Georgia, where he ran for 3,779 yards and 31 touchdowns, and the Denver press is giving him high reviews so far. With that said, I don't like Jackson's chances of making this team or any other. He's tremendously undersized at 5-foot-7, 180 pounds, and unlike Lindsay, Jackson doesn't make up for his unprecedented lack of size with standout speed. Jackson logged a 4.58-second 40-yard dash at his pro day, though his 40-inch vertical and 125-inch broad jump indicate some short-area explosiveness at least. But a guy that small simply needs to be fast, and he struggled with fumbles in college otherwise (one per 48.6 touches from scrimmage).

Alfred Blue vs. Ryquell Armstead, JAC

Aside from family members perhaps, no one is an Alfred Blue fan. Everyone's sick of him and his plodding ways, so when the Jaguars selected Armstead in the fifth round of the most recent draft, it was understandable that the public identified the rookie as the superior option to Blue as Leonard Fournette's backup. Armstead offers 4.45-second 40 speed at 220 pounds – something exciting in contrast to Blue's plodding career average of 3.6 yards per carry.

But Armstead fell to the fifth round largely because of his tendency to get nicked up at Temple, his max-motor running style inviting contact in a way that led me to compare him to Chris Ivory. Armstead has talent, but the question is how often he'll be able to display it.

Unfortunately for those fading Blue, Armstead opened training camp on the PUP list with a hamstring injury that appears to be the same that held him out of June minicamp. Blue is well-versed on passing down functions and he could earn the trust of coach Doug Marrone in that capacity particularly if Armstead isn't available to make his own case in that regard. That Armstead has a history of injury and this current hamstring ailment has gone on for almost two months now is not the greatest look, and passing situations were already a question mark for Armstead after he struggled in that realm at Temple.

Travis Homer vs. J.D. McKissic vs. C.J. Prosise, SEA

Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny are of course the two lead runners for Seattle, so the question of the third running back might prove inconsequential if those two stay healthy. But McKissic and Prosise have flashed passing-down upside in the past – an area of notable question for both Carson and Penny – and Homer is a 2019 sixth-round pick who stood out as one of the draft's best athletes at running back after a productive three-year career at Miami (FL).

There's a lot of reason to think Homer would beat the other two in a totally fair competition. He averaged 6.0 yards per carry at Miami, and at the combine he demonstrated standout explosiveness with a 4.48-second 40-yard dash, 39.5-inch vertical, and 130-inch broad jump. He also doesn't even turn 21 until August 6, meaning he could develop his athleticism even further in the upcoming years. But it would further be odd if the Seahawks selected him in the sixth round without knowing ahead of time that they planned to keep him on the final roster. They know what they have in McKissic and Prosise – why pursue another unless you figured you could do better?

Prosise is athletically talented and has standout receiving ability, but his durability troubles are almost to a comical extent at this point. McKissic, despite missing 11 games last year with a knee injury himself, seems to offer a higher floor between the two, both of whom are former college receivers who might function as passing-down specialists.

WIDE RECEIVERS
 

Tim Patrick vs. DaeSean Hamilton vs. Brendan Langley vs. Trinity Benson, DEN

This one is likely to prove inconsequential in a Joe Flacco offense that already includes Courtland Sutton and Emmanuel Sanders (Achilles), but it still seems like the situation might be more fluid than previously assumed.

For a long time it was taken as a near given that Denver's top four at receiver would be Sutton, Sanders, Patrick, and Hamilton, with Sutton and Patrick primarily playing outside while Sanders and Hamilton fought over the slot. It appears that Langley, a third-year player drafted in the third round as a cornerback out of Lamar, and Benson, an undrafted rookie out of East Central (OK), are both pushing for starting reps.

Langley ran a 4.43-second 40-yard dash at 6-foot, 201 pounds, and despite his failure at corner he seems to be catching on well at receiver. He was once a Georgia recruit at that position, so there's reason to think it might work out if he keeps showing promise. Benson is getting a significant amount of camp hype himself, but as an undrafted player who wasn't overly productive at tiny East Central Oklahoma, he gives off a special teamer sort of vibe to me. David Moore played at the same school but was more productive, and furthermore tested better than Benson athletically. You'll hear Benson referred to as a speed demon, but his 4.44-second 40-yard dash was a pro day time at a skinny 182 pounds, whereas Moore ran a 4.43 at 219 pounds.

My guess is Benson either doesn't make the team or is primarily limited to special teams, but Langley has enough pedigree to pose a real challenge to Patrick, who was undrafted out of Utah and has been up-and-down as an NFL receiver (56.1 percent catch rate, 7.7 YPT in 2018).

TIGHT ENDS

Lance Kendricks vs. Ben Watson vs. Matt LaCosse, NE

I don't know what to make of the Gronk speculation, so I'm going to ignore that whole subject. For now we have reason to believe these three will serve as the lead tight ends for New England in 2019. Kendricks was just signed Wednesday, and with that he's my immediate favorite to start at tight end for the Patriots. That would probably be the case even if Watson weren't suspended for the first four games, so it definitely is the case after accounting for that.

The picture is still bleak, because Kendricks' career has been a clear disappointment since the Rams selected him in the second round of the 2011 draft. I can't give you a great answer as to why he's been bad, but I anecdotally recall some instances of him dropping passes and showing a lack of flexibility. It's bizarre because he was a productive tight end at Wisconsin, where he arrived as a high wide receiver recruit with offers from schools as big as LSU and UCLA. How does a WR/TE tweener end up a bad NFL pass catcher after dominating as one in college? It's perplexing, but his receiving struggles were such that he's largely turned into a blocking tight end of all things. This is all with him testing as a plus athlete, running a 4.65-second 40 at the combine.

But Kendricks is at least experienced and a former standout prospect, which can't be said for LaCosse, a career practice squad type who last year proved inferior to the already sub-replacement level Jeff Heuerman in Denver. And while Kendricks isn't exactly in his prime with age 32 coming up, at least he's not on the verge of 39 like Watson. It's the weak competition that makes Kendricks interesting, not his brutal career line of a 62 percent catch rate at 6.4 YPT.