Mile High Report
Let’s break down Audric Estime’s rookie season and what fans across Broncos Country can expect from him moving forward.
Denver Broncos running back Audric Estime’s rookie season has many people divided over his potential. It was a bit of a mixed bag of success, and I think his first career carry encapsulates it very well: a 13-yard gain that ended with a fumble that was recovered by Denver. The potential is there, the skill is there, there’s a road bump, but it will work out well for the Broncos in the end.
At the time of writing this, the Broncos current running back room lists Audric Estime, JK Dobbins, RJ Harvey, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Tyler Badie. Many members of Broncos Country weren’t too happy with that following the draft. I was leery as well, but the more I’ve thought on it, the more I’ve watched Harvey, and the more I’ve watched Estime, I feel a lot better about this group.
But for today’s research I took a look at every carry from Estime’s 2024 campaign to see what we can predict what his sophomore season will look like.
Audric Estime took 75 handoffs last season that resulted in 67 gains, five losses, and five that ended up back at the line of scrimmage. Estime would finish with 305 yards with 4.1 yards per carry.
He was given a total of 87 yards before contact for an average of 1.2 yards before contact per carry. He would earn 218 yards after contact for a total of 2.9 yards after contact before carry. For reference, Saquon Barkley averaged 2.8 yards after contact per carry. On all his carries last season, Estime had two fumbles.
Estime mostly ran against seven-max boxes, seeing them on 56% of carries. Second-most was eight-man boxes at 26%, then six-man boxes at 11%, and he saw nine-man boxes 5% of the time.
Against a six-man box Estime had eight carries for 31 yards (3.9 YPC) with three yards after contact per carry. He was given 0.9 yards before contact before carry. Just one carry went for negative yards.
Against a seven-man box he had 42 carries for 207 (4.9 YPC) yards with 3.4 YACPC. He was given 1.5 YBCPC. Besides two carries that went for zero yards and one carry that went for a loss, every other carry went for positive yards.
Against an eight-man box he had 21 carries for 56 (2.7 YPC) yards with 2.1 YACPC. He was given just 0.6 YBCPC. Just two carries went for negative yards and he scored a touchdown.
Against a nine-man box he had four carries for 11 yards (2.8 YPC) with 1.5 YACPC. He was given 1.3 YBCPC. All but one of his carries went for positive yards and one went for a touchdown (one carry went for no gain).
With respect to formations, 50 of Estime’s 75 carries came out of Singleback, 15 out of the Gun, seven out of I, and three out...
