According to 9NEWS Denver’s Mike Klis, former Denver Broncos running back Audric Estime, who was waived by the team a few days ago, is not expected to sign back to their practice squad. Klis notes that Estime has interest elsewhere and will not be returning to the Broncos.
This is not a huge surprise due
to Estime falling out of favor with the Broncos. The former 5th-round pick came to the team with lots of hype and was given an opportunity to shine. That never happened, and he was later a healthy scratch for the Broncos’ wildcard game vs. the Bills. On top of that, the team would go out and draft R.J. Harvey in the 2nd round and then sign veteran running back J.K. Dobbins. Both of those additions changed the running back room significantly. Estime’s fall from grace became apparent when he was clearly last on the depth chart throughout camp and the preseason before eventually being waived by the team.
Payton spoke about Estime yesterday, and just from this quote, it did not seem like he would be returning to the team.
“Sometimes it’s a combination of things. I had a long visit with him today. His career is not by any chance over. That’s really not uncommon for a fifth-round selection. There’s also a credit to [RB Tyler] Badie’s experience, but also some of his versatility. Clearly when you add, and have the ability to sign a [RB J.K. Dobbins] and draft a [RJ] Harvey, that room changed immediately and the competition changed immediately.”
The Broncos have four running backs on their 53-man roster, but do not have an obvious practice squad candidate currently. They waived Blake Watson with an injury settlement, and he’s going to be sidelined a bit with a knee injury, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do here.
In the end, it appears Estime will continue his career elsewhere, and we’ll see if a change of scenery will be beneficial for him or not.
