As the country locks down to combat the corona virus the NFL continues to do business, and news continues to be made. One of the bigger moves of the off season came when former Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon signed a 2 year 16 million dollar contact to play for the Denver Broncos. Gordon was the running back who held out until the Chargers game on October 6th against Denver in hopes of getting a contract that paid him north of the 5 million he was set to receive. With the 13.5 million dollars he got guaranteed over two years he got paid a fair amount, but you have to wonder if he would've been paid more had he not held out, and put up similar numbers to his 2018-2019 season.
The first thing I thought of when Gordon was signed was "we already have a number 1 back in Phillip Lindsey". There are people who think Lindsey is too small to continue get a lot of carries in the NFL, and there are people who believe he can get the job done despite his smaller size. I am in the group that believes he can get the job done. Today's NFL almost requires that you have multiple running backs on your team. Despite his toughness Lindsey was still suspect with his pass blocking, and pass catching abilities last season. I have no doubt those issues were due to the wrist injury he sustained the season before, and had surgery to correct. There is no doubt that as Lindsey heals he will improve in both of those areas. Known to be one of the hardest workers both on the team, and in the league, I believe with the added competition of Melvin Gordon both players will end up being better for it.
Something I didn't think about immediately was that with the new collective bargaining agreement NFL game day rosters expanded from from 46 players to 48 players, with the only catch being that one of those two players has to be an offensive linemen. This means teams have an extra roster spot to play with. It makes sense that teams would use that roster spot to add another top quality running back on offense. The NFL is a league that constantly evolves, and over the last 10 years the running back position changed from a position you build an entire offense around, to one that is largely filled with role players outside of an elite few. Even for those elite few the lifespans of their careers are not very long. When you stop and think about it adding another top tier running back to the team makes total sense. While I do not think that the signing of Melvin Gordon is something that made Phillip Lindsey happy, I think they will push each other, and new Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Schurmur will take full advantage of being able to have two top tier running NFL running backs to create mismatches against defenses with.
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