Has Devontae Booker sewn up the starting running back gig?

In an indication that Booker remains the RB1, at least temporarily, Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph said superior rookie Royce Freeman is slated to go in Thursday's preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals.

Joseph declined to say whether Booker would be active.

“Right now, we’ve got Freeman scheduled to play," he announced. "He’s had a good preseason. He’s run the ball tough, he’s practiced well and he’s run downhill. We’ll see if he plays and how much he plays.”

The Broncos will deactivate 22 players -- presumably the starting offense and defense -- for the final exhibition contest as roster cutdown day quickly approaches. "Outside of that," Joseph claims, "the rest of the jobs are up for grabs." This would include the RB vacancy, which remains a log-jammed committee split between Booker, Freeman, Phillip Lindsay, De'Angelo Henderson and David Williams.

Five players competing for four spots, if that. Sixty minutes to decide it all?

"It’s a football game Thursday night, so things are going to happen," added Joseph. "Everyone is still fighting for jobs. We’ve got some important decisions to make out of that game on Thursday, and I love having the full roster intact. It makes it a better game, and you give young guys one more chance to prove they can play for us and play in this league. Those Week 4 games are now exciting because you have a full roster intact and guys are playing for their NFL careers. It should be fun Thursday night.”

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More perplexing than Freeman potentially playing in the most meaningless of exhibition contests -- God help Joseph if he gets injured -- is the team's inability to vault him over Booker on the depth chart. They're preaching fair competition yet this one hasn't been particularly close.

Through three preseason matchups, Freeman's logged a team-high 84 yards on 15 attempts (5.6 yards-per-carry) and three touchdowns, continually busting through the line of scrimmage. Booker has nine carries for 33 yards (3.7 YPC) and zero TDs, showing no explosion or home-run ability. The media sees it, the fans see it, Joseph doesn't.

"I’m not overly concerned about who is the lead guy," he said after last week's victory over the Washington Redskins. "It’s going to take three or four guys and all three or four guys can make great plays on the ball and get some nice gains."

If nice gains are what he's after, Freeman deserves to get the nod. That's why Denver drafted Oregon's all-time leading rusher, a Kareem Hunt lookalike with bellcow qualities. Unfortunately, they're more consumed with justifying Booker's fourth-round draft status than capitalizing on Freeman's third-round talent.