ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As he turned the corner, approaching full speed with the ball tightly secured in his arm, No. 2 put practice into slow-motion for a brief moment.
With defenders—and the left sideline—closing down on him in a hurry, Phillip Lindsay put the defense on hold as he did his best impression of a bucking Bronco — putting together a floating hesitation juke.
The levitating Lindsay.
Once he came back to earth, and the slow-motion move in his rearview mirror, he turned the burners on.
And that wasn’t the only play the undrafted rookie running back made on his first ever training camp practice.
Just plays before, the homegrown product absolutely shook linebacker Brandon Marshall on a stop-and-go route. After leaving Marshall in the stop part of the route, Lindsay had nothing but green ahead of him as Case Keenum — notably the first-team quarterback — hit him in stride for an easy 50-yard touchdown.
And what happened after practice might have been even more impressive.
“It’s hard to believe he didn’t go to the [NFL] Combine,” head coach Vance Joseph said after admitting he couldn’t believe Lindsay wasn’t drafted.
“Obviously, he’s a Buff, so I’ve watched Phillip for three years as a starter in a major conference. He was a great player. We were all surprised he didn’t go to the Combine, and obviously signing him as a free agent was tough because we drafted two backs. We pursued him heavily, and he stayed home.”
Lindsay’s instantaneous flash shouldn’t be a surprise. During his final two seasons at Colorado, the Denver South High School product had 2,726 rushing yards on top of 750 receiving yards. Don’t forget about the 32 touchdowns, either.
The secret for Lindsay burning Marshall earlier in the day might have lied in a special recipe.
“He’s got the sauce, so to speak. He got some good sauce to him,” Marshall said after practice, praising the 5-foot-8, 190-pound running back. “I like him.”
“He’s got all the moves. He’s quick. I think he’s going to be our third-down back. No offense to the other guys. Devontae Booker is a good route runner, as well, but I think they’ll want to mix both of them in.”
Take his sauce and smother it all over the 53-man roster.
Lindsay doesn’t sound like an undrafted rookie climbing the incredibly steep hill to make the team. He sounds like a man quickly moving up the depth chart.
“We’re definitely going to have some things planned for Phillip. Guys like that in the league, you just can’t cover them. They’re just assets to the offense,” Von Miller said after watching Lindsay’s eye-catching performance on Saturday. “You have to have a back like that, and we definitely have one.”
If the Super Bowl 50 MVP has anything to say about it, the question isn’t even if Lindsay will make the roster or his role on the team, it’s about how much he’ll play.
Oh, by the way, this was all on the first day. Not a bad first impression, eh?
