The NFL trade deadline is little more than two weeks out, and the rumor mill is cranking.

Since the Indianapolis Colts fired their general manager, Chris Ballard, the Denver Broncos have been linked to running back Jonathan Taylor all week in the rumor mill. But on Sunday, as Week 7 got underway, ESPN insider Adam Schefter gave the Taylor-to-Denver rumors a heaping dose of credibility.

"The first player to watch in Indianapolis is Jonathan Taylor. There's going to be a lot of interest in Taylor around the league. Teams like the Seattle Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings, the Denver Broncos, and the Green Bay Packers, who made a run at Jonathan Taylor a couple of years back. [They] could decide to call Indianapolis again," Schefter said on Sunday NFL Countdown.

Smoke or Fire

If Schefter said it, there's something burning at the source of that smoke, even if it's just an ember. And I think, right now, the Taylor possibility is just that: an ember.

The Broncos are through their first six-week gauntlet, and the schedule is now opening up for them. Meanwhile, they just activated rookie running back Jonah Coleman, and the Broncos believe that the best is yet to come from J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey.

If anything, the 4-2 Broncos will be buyers ahead of the November 10 trade deadline, but that's a big if. For the first time in a while, the Broncos have a full complement of draft picks in 2027, and their roster is starting to age, so infusions of youth will be key for the future.

I'm not sure Sean Payton is trying to hear that right now, though. Not after he came within a single game of leading the Broncos to the Super Bowl — a goal that would have been realized had Bo Nix not suffered his ankle injury in the divisional round.

Payton wants to win now because Nix won't be on his rookie contract forever. The third-year quarterback may be slumping, but the Broncos still view him as the future franchise quarteback.

Payton has said playing quarterback is the toughest thing to do in the NFL if you don't have a run game. The Broncos haven't had a viable run game this season, which has only exacerbated Nix's issues.

Lay of the RB Land

Re-signing Dobbins and keeping him healthy was supposed to give Nix the run-game foundation he needed to build on in Year 3. Maybe it was the level of competition those first six weeks, maybe it was the culmination of all Dobbins's serious injuries, but he hasn't looked like the player we saw for 10 games last season.

Coleman could be the answer, but pinning a team's rushing hopes on a rookie returning from injured reserve, regardless of his draft pedigree, would be ill-advised. The Broncos have three games left to decide whether to make a play for Taylor, unless another team beats them to the punch.

Taylor already has 492 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season, though he is averaging a career-low 4.0 yards per carry. He's one of the best backs in the NFL, though, and would immediately upgrade the Broncos' backfield.

The Takeaway

If the Broncos want to beat out other potential Taylor buyers, it might take upwards of a second-round pick, plus more, to pry him off Indy's hands. The Broncos will have to decide whether he'd be worth the cost, and they'd have to absorb his new two-year, $44 million contract.

But Denver would have Taylor all the way up until he hit the 30-year-old mark before having to decide on what to do next. Because he has so many miles on his tires, even at 27, there's a chance the Broncos could get him for a third-rounder plus some 2028 late-round capital. Maybe.

We know the Broncos are interested if Schefter is saying it. Let's see if it motivates the likes of Dobbins, Harvey, and Coleman, starting on Sunday at State Farm Stadium as the Broncos take on the Arizona Cardinals.