Javonte Williams’ food budget has been reduced. So has his waistline.

Before veterans reported Tuesday for training camp, the Broncos running back dropped 11 pounds to get down to 221. Encouragement to do so had come from head coach Sean Payton.

“It was just one of my goals to get a little slimmer, just to move a little bit better in training camp, things like that,’’ Williams said Thursday after an acclimation practice at Broncos Park. “He set me a goal weight and I got to it.”

It wasn’t always easy.

“I sacrificed,” Williams said. “I think the biggest thing, I just didn’t eat after 7 p.m. I just cut all my snacks out. I like to snack a lot, like Takis (tortilla chips) and things like that.”

Williams rushed for 903 yards as a rookie in 2021 before suffering a season-ending knee injury in October 2022. He returned last season but didn’t look all the way back, rushing for 774 yards while averaging just 3.6 per carry.

Before the draft in April, Payton was watching tape of when Williams played at North Carolina. That set into motion the weight loss for Williams, who had rushed for 1,140 yards in 2020 for the Tar Heels while averaging a staggering 7.3 yards per carry.

“I was watching his college tape in the draft room one day and he walked in,’’ Payton said. “We were watching all the runs, and I’m asking him questions. I said, ‘This is the back I want,’ and, ‘What did you weigh here?’ Often times runners, receivers and corners can, not intentionally, add weight in the weight room and yet, at those positions, I kind of like their college senior year weight early in the league.”

So, the goal was set for Williams to drop more than 10 pounds. Payton said the weight loss was clearly noticeable when Williams took the field for Wednesday’s first practice of camp.

“He looks good.  .. He looks trim,’’ Payton said. “I thought he looked sharp (Wednesday). He looked much different. His weight is down. I’m proud of him.”

Williams said he is now “shiftier.” The weight loss comes at a time when there has been talk that he needs to step up his play to secure a roster spot. Williams is on the books for a base salary of $1.87 million in the final season of his rookie contract and none of it is guaranteed.

Williams is facing plenty of competition. The Broncos have holdover running backs Samaje Perine and Jaleeel McLaughlin and two intriguing rookies in Audric Estime, a fifth-round pick from Notre Dame, and Blake Watson, undrafted out of Memphis.

“The type of coach Payton is, he’s seen a lot of great running backs come through,’’ Williams said. “So anything he says I’m going to listen to it and just for him to even care and just to tell me, ‘This is what we want you to be when you come back to (training camp) to have the best chance to do what you got to do.’”

Williams didn’t deny it was “kind of crazy” visiting Payton and “seeing me in a North Carolina jersey and him watching that.”

Williams suffered a torn ACL in 2022, and Payton has talked about how players usually are better in their second season after coming back from such an injury. Williams said he is “making a lot of progress” and “starting to feel like my old self again.”

The offseason has helped Williams in that regard. Before last season, he stayed in Denver to rehab. This year, he returned to his native North Carolina and was able to do more extensive work.

“Last year, offseason was pretty much rehabbing, trying to regain strength and even just trying to learn to run again and things like that,’’ he said. “But this offseason, just being able to get away and focus strictly on football drills and moves and things like, I feel like that’s been a huge benefit.”

The Broncos on Friday will hold their first training camp practice before fans. After another workout Saturday, they will take Sunday off and then be in pads Monday for the first time.

“That when real football starts,’’ Williams said.

It also will be when more is known about the battle at running back. The Broncos have a deep group of backs, with Perine and McLaughlin having some good moments last season and with the two rookies both coming off 1,000-yard college seasons.

There has been speculation Estime could push Williams for the starting job. Watson began camp on the non-football injury list after having tweaked a leg muscle, but Payton said he should be activated soon.

“It’s going to be real intense,’’ Williams said of the battle at running back. “That’s the way you should want it to be. No days off. … The competition will be excellent and we’re all just going to get better from it.”

So how good does Williams want to be?

“Just being the best,’’ he said. “That’s all I think about every day. Just being the best, and if I reach that goal, I feel like everything else will fall in line.”

To reach that goal, Williams is even willing to give up Takis.