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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yds | TD |
| 2009 | Steven Jackson, St.L. | 51 | 322 | 0 |
| 2010 | Steven Jackson, St.L. | 46 | 383 | 0 |
| 2011 | Clev. (3 different RBs) | 59 | 417 | 0 |
| 2012 | Trent Richardson, Clev. | 51 | 367 | 1 |
| 2013 | LeSean McCoy, Phil. | 52 | 539 | 2 |
| 2014 | McCoy/Sproles, Phil. | 68 | 542 | 0 |
| 2015 | DeMarco Murray/Sproles, Phil. | 99 | 710 | 2 |
| 2016 | Jerick McKinnon/Matt Asiata, Minn. | 75 | 518 | 2 |
| 2017 | Jerick McKinnon, Minn. | 51 | 421 | 2 |
| 2018 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 91 | 721 | 4 |
| 2019 | Saquon Barkley, NYG | 52 | 438 | 2 |
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