BRONCOS’ NEW RUNNING BACK CARRIES WEIGHT
Broncos rookie running back Freeman is no stranger to carrying a heavy load
Having coached at Oregon for nearly three decades and guided 13 players to 1,000-yard rushing seasons, Gary Campbell knows what ability looks like and believed Royce Freeman had it — speed and power to al- low him to run away from and over defenders.
Campbell’s colleagues on the Ducks staff, including coach Chip Kelly, weren’t as convinced.
“They knew he was from a small school (in Imperial, Calif.) and sometimes you feel like, ‘Oh, well, he’s not facing the competition he would if he was in Los Angeles or Florida or Texas,’ ” Campbell recalled in a phone interview. “Their only doubt was ‘Can he really run? Will he be fast enough?’ ”
Before Freeman’s senior year, Campbell invited him to Oreafter gon’s football camp. It was Freeman’s chance to prove he belonged on the Ducks’ recruiting radar.
Campbell said Freeman ran the 40-yard dash in sub-4.5 seconds.
Minds changed.
“They were all convinced,” Campbell said. “Once he ran that 40, everybody looked at their watches and said, ‘This guy is for real.’ I knew he was going to be ‘That Guy’ we were looking for.”
The Broncos have a similar vision.
The eighth running back selected last month in the NFL draft (third round/no. 71 overall), Freeman will get a chance to compete against Broncos’ returnees Devontae Booker and De’angelo Henderson to replace C.J. Anderson, who gained 1,007 yards last year but was released.
The Broncos won’t anoint Freeman, but if called upon, he has shown the durability and production befitting an every-down NFL back. He had 1,026 offensive touches including 64 touchdowns in 51 college games.
The Broncos feel they fortified their passing game by signing quarterback Case Keenum and drafting receivers Courtland Sutton and Daesean Hamilton. But improvement on offense begins with the running game and if there is one skill position player that can make an initial impact, it’s tailback. Last year, rookies Kareem Hunt (league-high 1,327 rushing yards), Leonard Fournette (eighth at 1,040) and Alvin Kamara (third in all-purpose yards at 1,901) changed their team’s offenses.
“Those guys are great backs, but they didn’t get here by accident; they worked for their position,” Freeman said after a recent organized team activity workout. “You just don’t step into the National Football League and start balling out and start making plays. You have to make plays in practice and put your time in the playbook.”
A coach’s dream
It took a blazing 40 time in the summer of 2013 for Oregon’s coaches to buy into Freeman. Eyepopping plays in summer camp the following year allowed his new teammates to do the same.
“During practices, whenever he touched the ball, there was excitement in the air, not from just the coaches but from the other players,” said Campbell, who was on Oregon’s staff from 1983-2016. “They would look at each other and then look at the coaches and say, ‘Wow!’ ”
Freeman carried 252, 283 and 168 times during his first three years, playing for Kelly and then Mark Helfrich. The Ducks ran a zone blocking scheme that Campbell said Freeman excelled at “because not only was he physical, he was patient.”
When Willie Taggart replaced Helfrich as head coach last year, he brought Donte’ Pimpleton with him from South Florida to coach the running backs.
“I had actually studied him the year before because I would always look at the best backs in the nation,” said Pimpleton, who followed Taggart to Florida State this offseason. “He was a big back (6-0, 229 pounds), but had speed and skills like a small back.”
Taggart’s offense featured changes to run counter (a misdirection play) and power (guards
pulling to lead). The scheme changed, but Freeman’s production did not (244 carries, 1,475 yards, 16 touchdowns).
“The different styles allowed me to become a complete back,” Freeman said.
Just as he clicked with Campbell, Freeman connected with Pimpleton. The two would meet one-on-one for what Pimpleton called “actual football” talks that centered on blocking schemes, protections and identifying defensive fronts. Freeman was a sponge.
“He’s a coach’s dream,” Pimpleton said. “He doesn’t say too much, but when he speaks, people listen. He was a leader in our running
back room and he led the (entire) team by example. He played and started for four years and that’s a lot of carries and hits on him but he handled it just fine. He never wanted to come out of practice, but I managed him.”
Freeman finished as Oregon’s career leader in rushing attempts (947), rushing yards (5,621) and touchdowns (60).
A heavy workload
During his NFL coaching career spanning stops at Kansas City, Arizona, Buffalo, Detroit, San Francisco and Chicago, new Broncos running backs coach Curtis Modkins has had workhorse and bycommittee situations. In 2009, Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower had 176 and 146 carries, respectively. In 2010, Fred Jackson carried 222 times for Buffalo. And last year, Jordan Howard had 276 attempts for Chicago.
“Every place is unique,” Modkins said. “The bottom line in this league is, you need a two to three guys with diverse skills to get you through a season. I had two guys in Chicago last year (Howard and Tarik Cohen) that were very different and both were productive.”
Freeman’s workload at Oregon was heavy, including 23 games of at least 20 attempts. But did that hurt him at draft time? Were teams wary?
“There was no issue at all,” Modkins said when asked if the Broncos were concerned. “He’s been productive. I like production.”
Said Freeman: “I never thought that (was an issue).”
Since the website sports-reference.com started its college football database in 2000, Freeman’s carries were 10th-most in the nation and his yards third-most.
Freeman had more college carries than any of the nine NFL players who reached 1,000 yards last year. Hunt led with 782 carries at Toledo, followed by Leveon Bell (671 at Michigan State) and Howard (647 at UAB and Indiana).
The tailback position in the NFL has all of the feel and look of an assembly line. Draft a player and sign him to a four-year contract. Run him into the ground. Start the cycle over again. Since 2012, there have been 15 rookies who rushed at least 200 times and nine rookies who reached 1,000 yards. Freeman could get that kind of opportunity.
Campbell, whose list of Oregon-to-the-nfl backs includes Jonathan Stewart, Legarrette Blount and Lamichael James, is confident Freeman will excel. Freeman is accustomed to the meat grinder that is a football season for a tailback and prepares and maintains accordingly.
“The main thing is he’s going to keep himself in great shape,” Campbell said. “Those guys last a lot longer. He has a lot of good football in him.”