The Backup's Burden: When Pre-Season Performance Forces a Coach's Hand

In the NFL, the pre-season is less of a warm-up and more of a corporate cull. As Sportsnet first reported, the process is a brutal business where rosters are slashed from 90 players down to 53, leaving over 1,100 athletes unemployed. While the polished starters get the headlines, the real drama unfolds in the margins, where backups and rookies are fighting to force a coaching staff's hand before the Sept. 9 kickoff.

Nowhere is this tension more evident than in Denver. The Broncos have constructed a rushing attack that is less of a hierarchy and more of a three-way collision. According to Sportsnet, the team has paired J.K. Dobbins—who signed a new two-year deal—with 2025 second-round pick RJ Harvey and 2026 fourth-round pick Jonah Coleman.

Dobbins has a history of being one of the league's elite runners when healthy, as evidenced by his 772 yards (eighth-most in the league after Week 11) before an injury in Week 10. However, injury has been a career-long shadow for Dobbins, which opened the door for RJ Harvey to take over the lead role last season. While Harvey showed promise, Sportsnet notes there is still room for growth.

Enter Jonah Coleman. The rookie has spent his camp impressing the Denver staff, and he only needed four carries in his debut to solidify that impression. The impact was immediate enough that head coach Sean Payton told reporters on Monday, "I didn't need to see additional evidence of what I've been seeing for three weeks." With Payton expressing belief in all three runners, the Broncos are positioned to rotate touches to maintain freshness, but the underlying competition remains: who can play well enough to make themselves indispensable?

Contrast Denver's strategic depth with the chaotic luxury in Arizona. The Cardinals possess what Sportsnet describes as an "embarrassment of riches" at running back, though it has devolved into a health crisis. The room includes James Conner, who had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons before being limited to three games last year, and 2024 third-round pick Trey Benson. They also added Tyler Allgeier via a two-year off-season contract; Allgeier previously rushed for eight touchdowns in Atlanta and topped 1,000 yards as a rookie.

Then there is Jeremiyah Love, the prized rookie taken third-overall in April. Love entered the league with a massive pedigree, recording 18 touchdowns and 1,372 yards at Notre Dame. However, a high-ankle sprain suffered in the pre-season opener—following a heavy 14-touch workload in the first half—has sidelined him for the rest of the pre-season and put his Week 1 status in doubt.

This creates a complex puzzle for Arizona that is as much about the ledger as it is about the turf. Sportsnet points out the significant financial disparities: Love carries a cap hit north of $9.6 million, while both Allgeier and Conner are owed over $4 million this season. With four quality options and only one ball, the Cardinals must decide if they can rely on a recovering Conner, if they will move on from Benson, or if the financial weight of their stars will dictate the depth chart.

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the quarterback battle has become a clash of left-handers. The Falcons are weighing former first-round pick Michael Penix Jr. against newcomer Tua Tagovailoa. The situation is an odd byproduct of the Falcons' aggressive spending; the team gave Kirk Cousins $180 million (with $100 million guaranteed) just a month before Penix Jr. was taken eighth in the 2024 draft.

Tagovailoa joined the Falcons on a one-year deal following six years with the Dolphins. On paper, the fit seemed seamless for new head coach Kevin Stefanski, who intended to tailor the offense for a lefty. However, the execution has been stalled by health and performance. Sportsnet reports that Penix Jr. is still rehabbing a knee injury that cut his 2025 season short, while Tagovailoa struggled during a pre-season outing against the Denver Broncos. Despite having elite weapons in Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts, the Falcons are facing a quarterback uncertainty they hoped to avoid years ago.

Finally, the Las Vegas Raiders are grappling with the transition from a veteran presence to a franchise hope. The team selected Fernando Mendoza first-overall, and while Mendoza showed promise in his pro debut with a touchdown and 97 passing yards, he isn't a guaranteed starter. According to Sportsnet, Kirk Cousins still appears to be the favorite to start Week 1 for head coach Klint Kubiak.

In every instance—whether it is Coleman forcing Sean Payton's hand in Denver or the financial pressure mounting in Arizona—the pre-season is proving that the most important players aren't always the ones with the biggest contracts. They are the ones who can survive the cut and make the coaching staff uncomfortable enough to change the plan.