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<\/p>\nThe fourth-round rookie is expected to join Dobbins and Harvey in aiding the Broncos’ running game.<\/p>\n
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 You can find out a lot about a guy when he\u2019s at his worst.<\/p>\n
Jonah Coleman, considered a top two to four running back throughout his senior season at Washington last year, suffered a strained knee ligament in his team\u2019s 9th game Nov. 8 at Wisconsin. He had a 1,000-yard rushing season the year before and was well on his to a better season in 2025, rushing for 643 yards and 13 touchdowns through eight games.<\/p>\n
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The PCL injury negatively affected Coleman. He had just 2 yards on 5 carries in the game he suffered the injury against Wisconsin, then missed the following week\u2019s game against Purdue. It was the only game Coleman missed despite an injury that normally takes four to six weeks to heal. He probably should have taken more time off as he rushed for just 6 yards on four carries against UCLA and 22 yards on 9 carries in a home loss to Oregon.<\/p>\n
In an era when most star players protect their draft stock by skipping their team\u2019s bowl game \u2013 heck, this is a time when many players skip their bowl game to enter the transfer portal and richer NIL deals \u2013 Coleman decided to play hurt. No doubt at the cost of his draft stock.<\/p>\n
Coleman was the fourth running back drafted \u2013 not the second or third. And the Broncos didn\u2019t take him until the fourth round with their No. 108 overall selection \u2013 not in the second round in the mid-50s.<\/p>\n
Given his situation \u2013 senior year, early Day 2 draft projection \u2013 why did Coleman decide to play hurt?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about the team,\u2019\u2019 Coleman said Saturday following the Broncos\u2019 rookie minicamp practice. \u201cI want to win. It wasn\u2019t about a little pain going on in the knee. I wanted to play. I never missed a football game in my life so it was definitely tough missing that one because I wanted to go out there and compete with my guys. But it\u2019s about winning at the end of the day, whether you\u2019re injured or you\u2019re hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coleman did return to play well in Washington\u2019s bowl game, rushing for 85 yards on 12 carries in a romp against Kage Casey\u2019s Boise State Broncos. Casey, a left tackle who is getting moved to left guard, was taken by the Denver Broncos, three picks after Coleman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the week off after the season so having the extra time definitely helped me a lot,\u2019\u2019 Coleman said.<\/p>\n
The expectation is Coleman will begin the season as the Broncos\u2019 No. 3 running back, behind veteran starter J.K. Dobbins and last year\u2019s second-round draft pick, RJ Harvey.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust do my job and be able to be a sponge,\u2019\u2019 Coleman said. \u201cTake in information, be coachable and show up every day as the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fourth-round rookie is expected to join Dobbins and Harvey in aiding the Broncos’ running game. ENGLEWOOD, Colo.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":788372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-788371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116555055326617186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}