Broncos Sign Former Colts Standout Running Back: Report

Getty Marlon Mack of the Indianapolis Colts.

The Denver Broncos were in need of running back help after Mike Boone suffered an ankle injury. Denver went out and signed Marlon Mack off of the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad to their active roster.

According to ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter, Mack flew to Denver on Sunday night, October 23 to sign with the Broncos and then fly with them to London to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Mack, 26, was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft.

During his first three seasons with Indianapolis, Mack was very impactful in his 40 games. Mack averaged 4.4 yards per carry and rushed for 2,357 yards. The former South Florida Bull also found the endzone 20 times on the ground including 2 more catches for touchdowns.

During the season opener in 2020, Mack suffered a torn Achilles that would force him to miss the entire season. Since then, he has only appeared in just eight games.

So far in 2022, Mack has played in two games as a special teams contributor for the 49ers.

Mack is the second running back that the Broncos have signed and promoted to the active roster this month, joining Latavius Murray. Both Murray and Mack will battle for the backup position behind starting running back Melvin Gordon.

Update on Mike Boone’s Injury

The Broncos announced that they have placed Boone on injured reserve and signed tackle Christian DiLauro to their practice squad.

Boone suffered a high ankle sprain that will keep him sidelined for a few weeks, per Mike Klis of 9News in Denver.

With Javonte Williams suffering a torn ACL against the Las Vegas Raiders, Boone’s playing time was going up as a running back and his time was going away from special teams. When Boone was given the ball, he was very successful running so far this season.

On just 15 carries, Boone averaged 5.5 yards per carry and was averaging over 10 yards per reception. The only issue, is that the Broncos hardly gave him the ball as the backup to Gordon.

Against the Colts in Week 5, Boone had a season-high 7 carries for 38 yards. Since then, Boone only carried the ball once against the Los Angeles Chargers two weeks ago and four times against the New York Jets before leaving the game with his ankle injury.

Broncos’ Offensive Struggles Continue

So far this season, Denver has not performed the way they were expected to. The Broncos scored just nine points last game against the Jets. Averaging 14.3 points per game, Denver ranks dead last in the NFL in scoring and have scored only eight touchdowns in seven games.

“I’m sick of being up here saying the same thing over and over again. The opportunities are there and at some point, we got to take them. There’s no excuses and we’ve been in every single game and we got to win these games,” head coach Nathaniel Hackett said after Sunday’s loss.

When talking with the media via Zoom on October 24, Hackett said that he will evaluate the entire process on offense.

“The plays do draw up good, and you’re excited about them and you want to make sure the players know exactly why you’re calling them, what you’re calling them for. And then you want to see that being able to be capitalized on during the game. If it doesn’t work, you have to go back to the drawing board, think back to some of those other schemes you might have had or feel as if you should get better at the same scheme.”

Hackett was also asked if there will be changes internally to fix the offense.

“Right now, on a short week, we’re going to keep it status quo. We’re all going to work together to build a great plan. I feel like our operation’s been going really well. We held the ball for a long time, we moved the ball, we just didn’t convert on some third downs that kind of stalled us. We’re going to keep going how we are, and I think we’ll evaluate everything. We always do. We always want to get better. We want to do everything we can to help this team get better as coaches.”

Dating back to the NFL merger in 1970, Denver has never scored fewer points up to this point in the season than they have this year.