Surprise! Tyler Badie is active while Audric Estime is inactive

We’re less than 90 minutes from kickoff and the Broncos made a surprising decision about their backfield.

Yesterday, the Denver Broncos activated running back Tyler Badie to the active roster while placing rookie tackle Frank Crum on the Non-Football Injury list. I wondered if we would see Badie in today’s game and it appears he will be a key part of the backfield today.

The Broncos released their inactive and surprisingly, rookie running back Audric Estime is among them while Badie is active.

I am not sure the exact reasoning why Estime is inactive, but he has struggled in recent games against two teams he should have had success against. He was below 3.0 yards per carry against a bad Bengals defense and the Chiefs’ backups in the finale. His YPC on the year has dipped to 4.1 after being above 5.0 yards per carry earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, Badie has flashed explosive play for the Broncos in a very limited sample size. He had their longest run of any running back early in the year vs. the Buccaneers and averaged 7.8 yards per carry on just 11 touches. Again, a very small sample size, but the results are what they are.

Badie will give the Broncos offense another smaller but explosive threat out of the backfield who can be a threat as a receiver and potentially break a long one in open space. With Estime inactive, more responsibility falls on veteran Javonte Williams who will be the Broncos’ lone power back for today’s game. He has excelled as a pass blocker this season but has seen his role as a rusher shrink in recent weeks so we’ll see how he does.

Hopefully, this move turns out beneficial for the Broncos this afternoon and Badie helps them upset Josh Allen and the explosive Buffalo Bills offense. Regardless, the Broncos backfield will be near or at the top of the positions they need to upgrade this offseason.