Jaleel McLaughlin put his money where his fingertips are.
McLaughlin turned in one of the best stories of the 2023 Broncos season, making the roster as an undrafted rookie out of FCS Youngstown State and then flashing playmaking ability throughout the season.
He provided concentrate to an offense that mostly lacked juice.
McLaughlin knew, though, that to make the jump from nice revelation to bona fide NFL weapon, he had to get better not only as a pass-protector but as a pass-catcher.
So he took a chunk of his first hard-won NFL earnings after his rookie season and promptly plopped down $4,750 for a JUGS machine.
“I’d just go out and catch 250 balls every day during January, February, March, right after the season,” McLaughlin told The Denver Post. “I was just catching, catching, catching. Different angles, different balls so that I can improve my catching.”
JUGS machines, of course, don’t come with footballs. So he asked Broncos equipment manager Chris “Flip” Valenti if he could have a bunch of old ones.
“They looked at me kind of like, ‘What do you need those for?’” McLaughlin said.
The machine doesn’t load itself. So McLaughlin enlisted his brother. They spent hours in McLaughlin’s Greenwood Village garage or ventured out to a local park.
“The machine is a plug-in so I have to plug it into my Jeep,” McLaughlin said, as if such DIY offseason work is the most normal thing imaginable. “So then I’d pull it up to the park field and catch all day. Catch kickoff returns, catch different angles of the ball coming.”
He smiled.
“It definitely was a good investment,” he said.
In that way, the second-year man is a microcosm of Denver’s running back room as a whole. In 2023, the group did not perform well enough. So the front office spent the offseason investing.
Now two weeks into camp the room, like McLaughlin, looks primed to transform from weakness into strength.
“I’m pleased with where that room is at,” Payton said Thursday.
A big Year 2?
Some Jaleel McLaughlin stories sound like Paul Bunyan lore.
He ran stairs in college at 5 a.m. every day. He rushed for 8,166 yards and 76 touchdowns between Division II Notre Dame College and Youngstown State. Broncos head coach Sean Payton raves about his work ethic, not only that he’s in early and stays late but also that he’s productive the entire time.
On Thursday, Payton joked that the only person who beats McLaughlin to the Broncos training facility each day is the 24-hour security guard.
“He’s having a really good camp,” Payton glowed.
McLaughlin is among the first onto the field each day before Denver’s camp practices and usually heads straight to —you guessed it —the JUGS machine.
“I go through the practice script at night time and see the plays that we’ve got the next day,” he said. “Sometimes it might be an over-the-shoulder ball that I need to work on. Sometimes it’s, ‘I’m running a choice route and I want to break in or I want to break out.’ My fingertips under the ball. Different stuff that comes up on the football field, I want to train my mind so I don’t even have to think about it when I get thrown a back-shoulder. I can just turn and open up.
“That’s the stuff I’m working on before practice and I try to get a lot in.”
All those thousands of offseason and pre-practice reps later, McLaughlin measures the difference in millimeters. Fractions of seconds. Catch the ball one tick more naturally or think one thought less about the process and you might split a seam, see a crease or react to a tackler or turn the corner.
This is the difference, he says, between his rookie offseason and this one.
“I know what I need to look like in Coach Payton’s offense,” he said. “Now I can work on specifics like going to catch the ball at night time. Going to work on my pass protection. Going to work on the different cuts when we’re running ‘duo’ that I didn’t make last year — that I didn’t even know of last year just because it was so new to me.
“I think that’s where my biggest improvement will come from. It made (training) easier for me. It made it smooth sailing for me.”
McLaughlin as a rookie tallied 570 offensive yards (107 touches) and three touchdowns while averaging a team-best 5.4 yards per carry. But most of his production came on the ground. As a student of the game, he knows that’s just the start of the realm of possibility in Payton’s offense, which in New Orleans was littered with running backs who racked up numbers in the passing game.
Last year Denver’s running back trio caught 128 passes —Samaje Perine led the way with 52 —on 150 targets. Only 38 of them, though, resulted in first downs and they combined to average 6.6 yards per catch.
Given the complexion of Denver’s quarterback race, the running backs could see an even greater catch share this fall.
A transformed room
McLaughlin isn’t the only Broncos back aiming for better production in 2024.
Javonte Williams admirably played in 16 games last year after aggressively pushing through rehab from a 2022 injury, but he struggled and finished at 3.6 yards per carry. The Denver offensive line graded out well by some measures (it was third in ESPN’s run block win rate) and fine by others (15th in FTN analyst Aaron Schatz’s line yards gained). But the running game overall lagged.
“It suggests that the blocking was better than the backs,” Schatz told The Post. “And when you look at the backs, there’s no question McLaughlin and Perine were better than Williams. Now, they had about half as many carries combined as Williams had on his own, but there’s no question the other running backs were better than Williams was. Whether that was his recovery from the ACL or McLaughlin really is that good, I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Williams has taken the first step toward providing clarity early in training camp. He showed up at 221 pounds and so far, “looks like a completely different player,” according to Payton.
Added McLaughlin, “Man, he looks great. He looked great to me last year, but now, whoa man. He looks really, really good. He’s going to have a big year and I’m excited for him. I’m excited to be playing alongside him. It’s going to be tough for the league for sure. He’s a great, hard worker and everything that’s coming his way he deserves.”
Perine brings a steady, reliable presence and in 2023 played a critical role particularly in two-minute situations and on third downs. Tyler Badie’s also had a productive camp so far.
Then there’s rookie Audric Estime, a fifth-round draft pick who has drawn rave reviews from coaches and teammates.
“He’s a really talented player. He’s got great vision, he’s got the biggest arms I think I’ve ever seen on a running back and he runs hard,” said right tackle Mike McGlinchey, like Estime a fellow former Notre Dame standout.
Blake Watson, the undrafted rookie, just returned off the non-football injury list Thursday and adds yet another option to the mix.
The roster race
The Broncos probably can’t keep all of them on the 53-man roster and fullback Michael Burton.
Payton consistently has said he thinks it’s a competitive race and the next few weeks figure to only ratchet up the intensity.
McLaughlin could end up a featured player in Denver’s offense this fall. But he first has to ensure he makes the roster.
“I feel like I’m more focused and more driven this year than I was last year,” he said. “Last year I just had nothing to lose at all. This year, I feel like I’m more driven.”
Pressure’s on. Payton said again recently that the best things a team can do to support a young quarterback are play good defense and run the ball efficiently. Much of the second part gets put on the offensive line, but Denver’s backs feel like they have a big say, too.
“The running backs need to step it up,” McLaughlin said. “We need to step it up and help lead this team. (Williams) being better, me being better, Samaje and Mike Burton and we added guys.
“We’ve got a lot of tools and I think that’s going to make the team better as an all-around whole and I’m excited about that.”
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Originally Published: August 4, 2024 at 5:45 a.m.
