Phillip Lindsay Fires Back at Doubters for 'Injury-Prone' Label in Fiery Radio Interview
In the 2018 NFL draft, 20 running backs were drafted including Royce Freeman and David Williams, both of whom were selected by the Denver Broncos. Not among the back who heard their name called on draft days was Phillip Lindsay.
As a running back prospect out of the University of Colorado, Lindsay did not even receive an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine. And it wasn't for a lack of production at CU.
Lindsay was overlooked and dismissed by all 32 NFL teams for one reason only; his size. At 5-foot-8 and 190 pounds, he strikes a diminutive frame, relative to NFL running back prototypes.
Lindsay's heart, however, is anything but diminutive. The Broncos wouldn't draft Lindsay but did offer him a small $2,000 signing bonus to come compete in OTAs and training camp. After much deliberation in which he almost chose the Baltimore Ravens' offer, Lindsay accepted Denver's invitation, though it took some convincing by his visionary mother.
Lindsay hit OTAs as an undrafted rookie wearing the bottom-of-the-barrel, no-one-expects-you-to-make-the-roster jersey No. 2. By the time the Broncos got through training camp and the preseason, Lindsay had outshined both Freeman and Williams, earning a coveted spot on the 53-man roster to open the regular season.
From Week 1, Lindsay made it clear that he was going to be a force to be reckoned with. Adorned with Terrell Davis' jersey No. 30, which Lindsay did not wear until he received in-person approval from his Hall-of-Fame idol, the dynamic running back steadily chipped away at Freeman's place atop the Broncos' depth chart.
When Freeman went down with a high-ankle sprain in Week 9, that sliver of daylight was all Lindsay needed to kick open the NFL door completely and storm onto the scene with a vengeance. He finished his rookie campaign with a 1,000-yard rushing total and double-digit touchdowns from scrimmage, earning Lindsay an unprecedented Pro Bowl nod as an undrafted rookie.
The next year, he repeated his 1,000-yard rushing season, becoming the first undrafted running back in NFL history to accomplish the feat in each year to open a career. Then, the darndest thing happened.
The Broncos went out and paid Melvin Gordon top-shelf money, speaking loudly and clearly about how the team viewed Lindsay; not good enough to carry the load. And maybe that's true. Lindsay himself admits he doesn't have the size to be a 20-carry-per-game bell-cow without risking his frame to injury but so long as he's on the roster, the Broncos don't need a bell-cow.
Now entering a contract year as a restricted free agent, new GM George Paton confirmed his intention of tendering Lindsay, though at which level, we don't yet know. Once tendered, Lindsay will be pitted against Gordon again for touch supremacy in the Broncos' backfield, and both will be in a contract year and set to be unrestricted free agents in 2020.
Asked what more he can do to prove he deserves a multi-year extension, Lindsay offered up his usual frankness and candor.
"I feel like for me, I've been a great leader," Lindsay told SiriusXM NFL Radio recently. "I've been a great player in the locker room. I give everything I've got every time I'm out there. Statistically—it's not being cocky—every time we've won a game, I've been a big part of it. Whether it's going for 100 yards—every time I've been for 100 yards, we've won the game."
Indeed, Lindsay has six 100-yard rushing games as a pro. Each time, the Broncos won the game. Insert the 'he ain't lyin' meme.
"So, for me, I haven't done anything wrong for someone not to want me, other than, [if] they don't prefer me because of the way I look," Lindsay continued, speaking to his frame. "If that's the case, that's played out. For me, it's just like, if you don't want me, then it's no hard feelings. It's just onto the next because at the end of the day, I need to do what's best for my family. As a business decision, you've got to understand. But for me, it's like, what more can I do? What more can I show?"
The contrarians will say that Lindsay needs to transform into the second coming of Marshall Faulk and become a dominant receiver out of the backfield in order to prove his NFL worth. To that I say, get real.
"I come in, and nobody knew about me, nobody cared about me, and I go in there and I do my thing—I stay consistent," Lindsay said. "And then I have one year where I got a couple injuries. And that's another thing; people sit here and be like, I'm injured. I'm injury-prone. I'm like, dude, I sit there, I missed one game my rookie year. I missed no games my second year. I went and got a clean-up done on my wrist and everybody went there and said I was injured. My third year, I dealt with some injuries which happens when you're a running back in a pandemic year."
Lindsay missed exactly one game in his first 32 as a pro. At 5-foot-8 and not even 200 pounds. And people want to claim that he's injury-prone?
Don't make me laugh. Yes, Lindsay dealt with some bad luck in 2020, from the turf-toe injury suffered in Week 1 to the concussion and finally the knee that hampered him down the stretch, but when the game-plan calls for him to carry the rock between the A-gap, snap after snap, at a certain point, something's got to give.
A more discretionary, and frankly, visionary use of Lindsay's unique skill-set would go a long way toward protecting him from the vagaries of the injury bug. Somebody send a memo to Pat Shurmur.
"So for me, what more can I show? I can't showcase more than my explosiveness and what I've been bringing to the table," Lindsay said.
Lindsay just keeps dropping haymakers on the Broncos every time someone puts a microphone in front of him. It might be annoying to Paton but A.) you can't blame the player and B.) facts don't care about your feelings.
The good news for Lindsay? If he receives the second-round RFA tender, he'll get a significant single-year raise. Last season, he made $750,000 while Gordon earned upwards of $8 million.
This year, Lindsay stands to make $3.384M on a second-round RFA tender. From there, the Broncos will have a big decision to make. Find a way to re-sign the homegrown fan-favorite Lindsay? Or pay Gordon again?
There's the distinct possibility Paton could choose door number three and draft a running back preemptively this year to replace both veterans in 2022. Whatever happens, Lindsay absolutely deserves to get paid.
He out-played the measly college-free-agent contract he's received from the Broncos just in 2018 alone. NFL teams don't pay players based on services rendered but if anyone deserved that sort of recognition, it's Phillip freakin' Lindsay, who carried the hapless Broncos offense from 2018 through 2019.
The odds say 2020 was an outlier for Lindsay health-wise. Back on his feet at 100%, don't be surprised to see him storm back onto the NFL scene in 2021 with a vengeance and put Paton in a situation where he can't not pay Lindsay.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen.
Follow Mile High Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to Mile High Huddle on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!
