The Broncos will be without their rookie running back for at least four games.
Denver is placing Jonah Coleman on injured reserve Saturday, according to the league’s transaction wire.
Coleman must miss at least four games and is eligible to return Week 7 when the Broncos travel to Arizona. He had already been ruled out for Sunday’s game.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton made it clear Friday that Denver was not just playing it safe with Coleman when asked whether it was the type of situation where Coleman might be playing if it weren’t early in the season.
“If a player can play, then we’re going to play them,” Payton said flatly. “If they can’t, we’re not going to. It would have no bearing as to Week 3 or the championship round.”
Turns out, Coleman will miss more than just a week. It comes as a moderate surprise because Coleman played a big role late in the Broncos’ 20-13 win over Jacksonville last week and was particularly effective down the stretch as he powered a 4-minute, 41-second closeout drive.
He was present at practice all three days this week but did not participate. He’ll now get several weeks to rehabilitate.
Denver will go forward into Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams with J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey as the top options and Tyler Badie as the third running back active. If the club needs to dip into its depth over the coming weeks, it also has Cody Schrader on the practice squad.
The Broncos also worked out a trio of running backs this week.
Coleman was thrust into a bigger role against Jacksonville because Harvey was out with a hamstring issue.
During the game, Dobbins took a hard hit on the hip and had what he described to The Post on Wednesday as muscle spasms in his leg. He didn’t carry the ball after the 1:33 mark of the third quarter.
That left Coleman, a fourth-round pick out of the University of Washington, to help the Broncos close out the Jaguars after they took the lead in the fourth quarter.
Coleman had a pair of 12-yard runs, including a final one in which he alertly slid to the ground in bounds to get Denver to the two-minute warning. After that, the Broncos kneeled the ball three times and ran out the clock.
Payton has lauded Coleman’s work, saying he did not seem like a rookie on the final drive.
Now, Denver will go without him against the Rams, San Francisco, the Los Angeles Chargers, and Seattle, at a minimum.
Payton said on Friday that Denver “felt good” about how the running back room was shaping up for Sunday night.
Coleman is the third out of eight total players for whom the Broncos can use a designation to return from injured reserve this season. The first two were OL Frank Crum and TE Caleb Lohner, who were put on injured reserve at the roster cutdown deadline in late August.
Broncos promote LS Mitch Fraboni
Long-snapper Mitch Fraboni is taking Coleman’s spot on the 53-man roster.
The Broncos promoted him from the practice squad, per the league’s transaction wire.
Denver is also elevating FB Adam Prentice and WR Kolbe Katsis from the practice squad for Sunday night against the Rams.
Prentice will be elevated for the third and final time and will need to be promoted to the 53-man roster next week if he’s to appear again for the Broncos.
Katsis, an undrafted rookie out of Northern Arizona, is being elevated for the first time. He is a promising return man and may well get a shot at kickoffs and perhaps also punts with Coleman out, Harvey coming off an injury and WR Marvin Mims Jr. questionable with a foot issue.
