In the Denver Broncos‘ 26-7 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Last Sunday, running back Tyler Badie exploded onto the scene. It wasn’t the first game in which he made an impact on offense, but compared to the paltry rushing averages of Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin this season, Badie’s 7.8 yards per carry average stood out.

Perhaps concerned that an outside team might try to get him off the practice squad, the Broncos officially promoted Badie to the 53-man roster this week. The move could be a harbinger of the former playing a larger role Baltimore Ravens Sixth round pick.

Since Badie joined the Broncos, the team’s public relations department has provided the pronunciation of his name, spelling it phonetically as “Bay-dee.” But during his breakthrough performance last week in Tampa, the television crew pronounced his name “Buh-day.”

Badie solves the pronunciation problem by telling it DNVR that the TV broadcast was right.

“BOO DAY” he said, via DNVRThis is Zac Stevens. “Let’s get it out of the way.”

The Broncos’ PR department is top-notch and goes to great lengths to ensure that player names are pronounced correctly by announcers, commentators and pundits by spelling them phonetically in the annual Media Guide. So why the discrepancy regarding “Bay-dee” and “Buh-day”?

“I actually changed it myself,” Badie said of Stevens. “There are some other things going on, some family matters that I will talk about later. But at the moment I’m just trying to concentrate on football.”

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And there you have it. Badie himself went to the Broncos after the media guide was released and told them about the change in pronunciation, which was correct in the TV broadcast last week.

With that out of the way, Badie wants to focus on the ball, and the same goes for Broncos fans. Now that he’s been promoted to the 53-man roster, could Broncos Country expect Badie to take on a larger share of the rushing load? Perhaps Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi’s comments on Thursday could point to an answer.

“I think Tyler is an interesting story because he was a guy we were really excited about last year and he got injured in training camp,” Lombardi said. “When he got healthy, things were kind of moving and (we) thought he had a really good camp. We were fortunate to be able to keep him after training camp and I think we knew there would be a day this season when he would be called up and get his opportunities.

Since it was painful to watch Williams run into the backs of his blockers and McLaughlin was quickly swallowed up by tacklers, Badie’s explosive first step and vision to find the cut-back lane were refreshing. It sort of jumps off the screen when you study the film – more than just a change of pace.

“I don’t think any of us were surprised by what he did,” Lombardi said of Badie. “He’s a guy we definitely thought highly of. I was excited when his opportunity arose. I kind of expected him to show himself like that.”

Teams are pretty stubborn when it comes to hand-picking players to go No. 1 on the depth chart. So it would be silly if the Broncos didn’t find ways to include Badie more often, but it would be a surprise if it came to the cost of Williams’ touch share. There are always exceptions to the rule, but as Lombardi said regarding Badie’s health last year, things are now “moving,” and that includes Williams as the RB1 in the final year of his contract.

Broncos Country wants Williams – a 2021 second-round pick who the team traded up to draft – to succeed and even secure a second contract, but he clearly held back the offense, leaving Bo Nix and Co. in trouble for many seconds brought – and third-and-long situations.

“I don’t know if you have to do that — I don’t know if there’s a specific step you have to take,” Lombardi said, referring to Williams and McLaughlin’s low rushing averages. “I mean, obviously Tyler went along with it” and had the big success, and he’s a guy we really like. The running game is one of those things where not every run is a 20-yard gain, and you stick with it thinking you know the players you have. Just because the stats say they don’t gain a lot of yards doesn’t mean they suddenly suck. So you keep giving them the ball and you know that we’re getting better and better, the plan is getting better and we’re getting better at blocking. Your big runs are coming.”

As you can see, it doesn’t look like the plan is to eat up Williams’ touch share, whether that makes sense or not. If anything, expect McLaughlin’s bite to fade as the Broncos look to give Badie an expanded role.

“It’s like everything; It’s tempting to run the ball a few times early and not gain any yards and then just say, ‘To hell with it, we’ll just start throwing,'” Lombardi explained. “The running game is one of those things where if you stick with it, you’re going to fail some runs. It’s just a patience thing and we’ll just get better as we execute.”

Head coach and game manager Sean Payton stuck with the run, even when it didn’t work out well for the Broncos. That patience paid off last week when Badie was inserted into the lineup in the second half and managed a 43-yard run, helping the Broncos run out the clock and put the Bucs to bed.

However, in the NFL, the hot hand usually takes precedence – especially for a running back through a committee offense like Payton’s. The Broncos would be remiss to ignore Badie’s dynamic just to “keep the original plan going.”

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