Phillip Lindsay stars in Broncos debut

Phillip Lindsay will not stop proving himself. In his first game with his hometown Denver Broncos, Lindsay’s play was critical to their 27-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Lindsay was always going to be valuable to Denver as a pass-catching running back and he proved that with his first career catch. On 2nd-and-5 at the Seahawks’ 29-yard-line, Lindsay ran a flat route out of the backfield, catch the check down throw, cut towards the sideline and turned on the jets to go untouched into the end zone. Wearing Terrell Davis’s old #30, Lindsay celebrated his touchdown with his arms crossed and back leaned, just as he did for so many of his scores with the Buffs.

Lindsay wasn’t done after that score. To the surprise of many fantasy football players, he saw more touches than presumed starter (and Rookie of the Year dark horse) Royce Freeman, a fellow rookie to broke every record at Oregon. Lindsay certainly deserved his 15 carries and 2 catches and with 102 total yards plus a score, he did more with the ball than anyone on the Broncos’ offense, save for Emmanuel Sanders.

It will be interesting to see how Lindsay’s role changes or grows from here. Freeman was thought of as a workhorse-type early down runner and he was terrific in the preseason; the Broncos seem to be very high on him and likely want him to have the majority of the carries. Devontae Booker, meanwhile, struggled all preseason — because he sucks, imo — but the Broncos still had him listed as their second running back. He was healthy and had 4 touches (for a whopping 15 total yards), so maybe Lindsay has already surpassed him on the depth chart.

If this type of workload will be the norm, this could be the start of a prolific career for Lindsay.