Why is Melvin Gordon still getting majority of snaps?

No offense to Melvin Gordon, but the Denver Broncos need to move on just for the sake of ball security.

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Once again, the Denver Broncos featured back was Melvin Gordon this week. He logged 53% of the snaps on offense during the Broncos’ 17-10 defeat to the Tennessee Titans. He totaled seven carries for 24 yards and another 4 receptions for 46 yards. Overall just a slightly below average performance, but its not Gordon’s rushing or receiving ability that is the reason why I think he shouldn’t be on the field more than an handful of snaps each game.

It’s ball security.

While the stat-line doesn’t show any fumbles, he definitely coughed the football up again on Sunday and if Tennessee had challenged the ruling that he was down by contact there was a reasonable shot it could have been overturned.

Technically Gordon hasn’t had a fumble since Week 4 and while that is a good thing, he has fumbled. Each time he was ruled down by contact. This suggests to me that his ball security issues are not resolved and it is only a matter of time before one actually counts.

Latavius Murray wasn’t the better back on Sunday with just 24 yards on nine carries and another 23 yards on three catches, however, both of the Broncos scoring drives came with him being the primary ball carrier on the drive.

With Murray and Chase Edmonds on the roster, it would make more sense to relegate Gordon to the third running back on the depth chart and just roll with those two. However, Nathaniel Hackett has proven to lack the ability to hold anyone accountable and I would expect Gordon to continue being “the guy” until the ball security issues finally show up again on the stat-line.

At 3-6, maybe it doesn’t even matter at this point. I think a lot of us are just looking forward to the coaching changes that should be coming in January.