{"id":132117,"date":"2025-06-15T15:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/132117\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:23:11","slug":"broncos-rb-j-k-dobbins-were-in-contact-since-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/132117\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos, RB J.K. Dobbins Were In Contact Since March"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Broncos recently signed running back J.K. Dobbins<\/a> to a one-year contract worth $2.75MM<\/a>, with an additional $2.5MM incentive package. Although the two sides just came to terms several days ago, there was mutual interest since free agency opened in March.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Per Luca Evans of the Denver Post<\/a>, the Broncos made contact with Dobbins\u2019 camp at the outset of free agency and stayed in touch over the next several months. Similarly, Dobbins \u2013 who played against defensive coordinator Vance Joseph\u2019s unit as a member of the Chargers last year and who lauded his new club\u2019s O-line and quarterback Bo Nix<\/a> \u2013 said joining Denver was a \u201cno-brainer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though he is only 26, Dobbins is now far and away the most seasoned player in Denver\u2019s RB room, which also features second-round rookie R.J. Harvey<\/a>, 2024 fifth-rounder Audric Estime<\/a>, and 2023 UDFA Jaleel McLaughlin<\/a>. The overall underperformance of the club\u2019s running backs in 2024, along with the free agency departure<\/a> of Javonte Williams<\/a>, led many to believe the Broncos would target the position on Day 1 of April\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

UNC back Omarion Hampton<\/a> was frequently mocked to Denver and its No. 20 overall pick. Instead, the Broncos chose a defensive player<\/a> in Texas corner Jahdae Barron<\/a>, and while they reportedly would have targeted<\/a> Ohio State RB TreVeyon Henderson<\/a> in a trade-down maneuver from the No. 20 spot, they clearly did not receive an offer tempting enough to relinquish the opportunity to select Barron.<\/p>\n

In theory, the club could have moved up from its No. 51 slot to nab Henderson \u2013 who eventually went to the Patriots with the No. 38 pick \u2013 but Troy Renck of the Denver Post<\/a> believes the Broncos eschewed that route largely because they knew they had Dobbins \u201cin their back pocket.\u201d Ultimately, Denver traded down twice from their No. 51 position to land Harvey at No. 60 overall.<\/p>\n

Dobbins appears to have wanted to sign with Denver all along, and he was merely waiting for them (or, presumably, a different team with a clear RB opening) to hit his price point. Nick Chubb<\/a>\u2019s one-year, $2.5MM<\/a> deal with the Texans helped crystallize Dobbins\u2019 market, and he put pen to paper on his Broncos deal shortly after Chubb officially joined his new team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dobbins admitted there was some urgency to the deal as a result of the Chargers\u2019 decision to hit him with the UFA tender<\/a>. If Dobbins had not signed a contract with a different club by July 22, the Bolts would have regained exclusive negotiating rights with him, and he theoretically could have been forced to play out the 2025 campaign on the $1.1MM tender (though Los Angeles did make him what was described as a \u201cpretty decent\u201d offer<\/a> before he elected to join the Broncos).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Chargers added <\/a>Najee Harris<\/a> in free agency and selected Hampton in the first round of the 2025 draft (just two picks after Barron came off the board), keeping Dobbins in the fold would not have broken the bank and would have given the team a deep and intriguing collection of RB talent. But from Dobbins\u2019 perspective, Denver clearly presents a better opportunity.<\/p>\n

Renck believes Dobbins will be ticketed for a starting role from the jump, as he says Harvey will \u201cideally\u201d begin sharing early-down snaps with his new teammate by the middle of October. That said, Harvey was not a consensus second-round talent, so if Dobbins can stay healthy \u2013 which has been difficult for him since he suffered a torn ACL in a preseason game in 2021, his second year in the league \u2013 he could see the lion\u2019s share of carries throughout the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Dobbins missed four games due to a MCL strain in 2024, his first and only season with the Chargers. Still, he tallied 905 yards and nine TDs on a strong 4.6 yards-per-carry average, and his 27 runs of 10+ yards was the 11th-highest total in the league. After playing in just one game the year prior, Dobbins finished second in Comeback Player of the Year voting in 2024 (behind Bengals QB Joe Burrow<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broncos recently signed running back J.K. Dobbins to a one-year contract worth $2.75MM, with an additional $2.5MM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,601,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-132117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denverbroncos","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-j-k-dobbins","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}