ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Jonah Coleman never attended a San Francisco 49ers or Oakland Raiders game as a kid growing up in Stockton, Calif. Though he attended the University of Washington, across town from Lumen Field, he never took in a Seattle Seahawks game, either.
So Coleman, the running back the Denver Broncos selected in the fourth round of April’s draft, attended his first NFL game while making his debut in Denver’s preseason opener in Atlanta on Aug. 14.
“I had never really thought of it that I hadn’t been to (an NFL) game,” Coleman said this week in a quiet corner of the Broncos’ indoor practice facility after he shucked off his shoulder pads. “As time goes by, I just realized, ‘I’ve never been to a game,’ so being in the NFL was crazy. The nerves were definitely hitting me kind of hard.”
Rookie Jonah Coleman looks like missing piece in Broncos’ backfield
Nick Kosmider
Not that anyone could tell by watching Coleman in his debut that night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It wasn’t just the 24 yards on four carries that stood out. It was the smooth decisiveness in his cuts. The physicality he displayed while taking on defenders. The generally calm demeanor that led to coach Sean Payton’s observation, near the start of training camp, that he didn’t “feel rookie” when it came to Coleman.
It turns out that’s the exact impression Coleman was trying to make when he first showed up at the Broncos’ facility for workouts ahead of a rookie minicamp in May, powered by a two-word motto: “Be undeniable.”
“I just had the mindset of, ‘I’m trying to make the team,’” Coleman said. “So I’m trying to do everything right, trying to stand out. The biggest thing is trust coming in as a rookie. So just trying to gain the coaches’ trust, gain my teammates’ trust. They ain’t going to put you in the game if they don’t trust you, so it’s just doing the little things right and being undeniable.”
His experience in Jedd Fisch’s pro-style system at Washington gave Coleman a head start in some areas critical to gaining Payton’s trust as a rookie running back. The Huskies played with an up-tempo style, running backs coach Scottie Graham said, that kept Coleman on the field on all downs. So his role demanded that he be a capable receiver and a trusted wall in pass protection, able to recognize blitzing patterns.
“He did a number of things on tape or was exposed to certain protections maybe that a lot of college backs weren’t. So you feel an older player or a veteran player, and you saw that on tape. … You had a chance to see more of it maybe than you do with some other guys,” Graham said.
The most significant impact Coleman may have this season, though, is as a between-the-tackles complement to starter J.K. Dobbins. Broncos assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt said after the draft that comparisons of Coleman’s running style to that of the veteran Dobbins were “valid,” and that could give the Broncos an opportunity to lessen Dobbins’ rushing load with the aim of keeping him healthy throughout the season. RJ Harvey scored 12 total touchdowns as a rookie last season and has looked in this camp like a player who can be Denver’s most dynamic receiving threat at running back since Knowshon Moreno caught 60 Peyton Manning passes in 2013. But Coleman, a tackle-breaking force at Washington, could be a better fit as an interchangeable piece with Dobbins on run downs.
“He runs the ball really well. A lot of guys want to come in and be something else other than a running back,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton said. “As a young guy, it’s like, focus on inside zone, outside zone, making the right cuts. In this league, it’s hard to be patient and find the right spots because guys are so much faster. No matter where you went to college, maybe one or two guys from that team get drafted or even as undrafted (free agents). Out here, it’s every guy from every one of those teams, so to see him be able to feel that and be a patient runner and then attack it every time has been special to see. Every time we’ve seen it live, like in the preseason, he’s taken another step each week.”
Coleman said he learned early while operating within Denver’s offense that “one little step, one little misalignment, can mess up everything that was supposed to happen on that play.” He is running against a Broncos defensive line in practice that erases nearly all margin for error on most plays. That’s why Coleman’s work behind the scenes may best explain why he’s put himself in a position to grab a significant role in Denver’s offense from the start of the season. Broncos running backs coach Lou Ayeni said Coleman “is a guy who doesn’t back down from the competition,” and that has been illustrated by the way the 22-year-old has challenged himself to grasp the concepts in the deepest corners of the team’s playbook.
“We have thrown a lot of installs at him and he’s been great with that,” offensive coordinator Davis Webb said.
Coleman, of course, is one piece of a backfield that Payton says could be the most complete since he took over as the team’s coach in 2023. Dobbins, who was fifth in the NFL in rushing when he went down with a season-ending foot injury in Week 10 (772 yards), is pivotal to Denver’s hopes of being a more consistent and explosive offense. The veteran is fully cleared of a soft-tissue injury that nagged him early in camp and put together one of his top practices of training camp on Wednesday. Coleman said having a player like Dobbins as the vet in the room has been invaluable — if demanding.
“He’s really hard on me, so anytime I’ve got a question or anything, I’m able to go to him and talk about it,” the rookie said. “Or if he thinks that I need to do something better or pick up the tempo or just anything that I need to fix, J.K. is the first person to tell me. Like, ‘Hey, man, you’ve got to hit that!’ Or, ‘Hey, man, good run!” He’s just picking at extra details and being hard on me because he wants us to be good. He does that to everyone in the running back room and that’s great to be around.”
Coleman has indeed made his spot on Denver’s roster undeniable. All that remains to be seen now is how quickly an offseason that drew praise from coaches and teammates alike can translate to a role that helps elevate the Broncos’ offense.
