BRONCOS

Broncos Bye Week Report Card: Linebackers and Defensive Backs

Nov 11, 2019, 6:56 AM

The Broncos have a bye in Week 10, as they are basically at the halfway point of the 2019 season. Through nine games, Denver has a 3-6 record. They sit at the bottom of the AFC West and they have one of the worst records in the entire conference.

After the team’s Week 9 win over the Browns, head coach Vic Fangio commented on the Broncos record.

“We are 3-6. Could we be better? Yes. Could we be worse? No. I don’t really know how to answer that question other than we’ve had more than our chance to have a much better record than we do, but it is what it is,” Fangio said.

The Broncos have a really strong defense. They rank as fourth in the league in terms of yards allowed per game so far this season. Under Fangio’s guidance, the Broncos have bought in defensively and are making plays consistently even though they have had a lot of injuries to key players on that side of the ball.

While the defense can be suffocating, the offense can suck the life out of the game. They are averaging only 16.56 points per game, ranking No. 28 in the NFL after nine weeks of action. This team looked better offensively in the game against the Browns, but it’s only one game and they have much tougher tests coming up after their bye.

This week, I’m going to take a look at each position on the roster and hand out grades for their performance so far. In today’s blog, let’s grade the linebackers and defensive backs.

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Linebackers

The grade for this position would be better if Bradley Chubb had not been lost for the season with a knee injury after Week 4. This injury robbed the Broncos of one of the best players in the league, and certainly one of the best players on the roster. Without Chubb, the grade won’t be as good because the Broncos reserve outside linebackers are not as good as the second-year pro.

Sacks are down for the Broncos this year. After nine games, the Broncos only have 19 sacks, which ranks No. 19 in the NFL. They are No. 10 in the NFL with 512 tackles, many of those coming from the linebacker level.

Von Miller is not quite producing at the expected level in 2019. He just has 4.0 sacks in nine games so far and has not been as productive under Fangio as people thought he would be. In fact, Miller is challenged on a near-weekly basis by his head coach to do more.

Miller has been strong as a run-defender, and sometimes he has been asked to play in coverage. He’s still getting a lot of respect from opponents and is regularly double teamed. It seems like the defense is okay with that as it allows others to make plays on the quarterback. Miller has a win rate percentage against a double team of just 5.6 percent (73rd in the NFL). Sacks come in bunches, and we’ll see if Miller can do more over the last seven games of the 2019 season.

It’s more than just sacks, and the advanced data shows how Miller’s pressure is helping out in a big way. Miller is No. 1 in the league with 22 incompletions created from his pressure. Miller has also caused four interceptions from his pressure, also ranking first in the league.

Todd Davis is a pro’s pro. He’s a leader on this defense and has improved his play each year he’s played for the Broncos. Davis is a natural fit in the Fangio system. He’s able of utilizing his football smarts to “scrape and flow” to plays with ease. The Broncos defensive line is doing a good job of keeping blockers off of Davis, and he is responding by finding the ball and getting to take down the ball-carrier in a hurry.

Alexander Johnson has been an incredible starter for the Broncos during the last month of the regular season. He’s only been playing for about a month on defense, as Johnson had to wait patiently for his opportunity. When Josey Jewell went down with an injury, Johnson took over and has not looked back.

The Broncos haven’t had an inside linebacker like Johnson since the days of Al Wilson. He’s not quite to Wilson’s level yet, but the potential is there. Johnson is known as a “motor guy” who does not stop. He will continue to pursue the play even if it goes far downfield away from him. Johnson is okay in coverage, but he is excellent and finding the runner and bringing him down quickly and forcefully.

Malik Reed has worked diligently to fill the shoes of the injured Bradley Chubb. He’s just not producing hardly at all. Reed has started five games since Chubb went down and has not registered a sack in any of those starts. Reed is a young player, added as an undrafted free agent out of Nevada in 2019, so we’ll cut him a bit of a break as he has tremendously large shoes to fill. Reed does hustle to the play when it goes away from him, and he has one fumble recovery to show for it. It will be fun to see if Reed can continue to get better (and get more sacks) as we go through the rest of the regular season.

Position Grade: B

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Defensive Backs

The Broncos have a ton of talent in the defensive backfield. They’re no longer the “No Fly Zone” back there, but the quality of players are not that far off in this new incarnation. The strength in this secondary has been highlighted in the Fangio defense. It took some time for everyone to get on the same page, but the secondary is thriving in the zone concepts that make up the Fangio system.

After nine games, the Broncos pass defense ranks No. 4 in the NFL with only 1,913 receiving yards allowed. The team ranks even better (No. 3) when it comes to touchdown passes allowed with only seven given up so far this season. Finally, the Broncos rank No. 6 in the NFL with 90 first-down receptions allowed. Simply put, it’s tough to move the ball through the air against the Broncos.

Chris Harris Jr. is still one of the best cornerbacks in the game today. In Fangio’s defense, Harris has been tasked with taking on the top receiver of an opponent on a weekly basis. CHJ has a ton of athletic arrogance, for good reason, and that helps him even when one of those star receivers makes one big catch against him.

Harris is incredibly smart and knows how to bait quarterbacks into bad throws. He’s not challenged much on a weekly basis and can take away a large chunk of the field for the Broncos defense. CHJ allows the Broncos to adjust and give help to other players in the secondary. He’s in the final year of his contract, but perhaps the two sides can work something out for the future as Harris has proven that he can still play at a high level.

Davontae Harris, like Alexander Johnson, is another incredible find for the Broncos defense. A castoff from the Bengals defense, Harris was a fifth-round pick out of Illinois State in the 2018 NFL Draft. He barely played for the Bengals as a rookie, mainly due to a knee injury that landed him on Injured Reserve for most of the year. The Broncos picked him up on waivers before Week 1, and he was pressed into duty about a month later.

Harris has the hard-hitting mentality to knock receivers down or knock the football out. He had two big pass breakups against the Browns in Week 9, and Harris gets a lot of attention playing opposite of CHJ. Not many can stand up to that sort of pressure, but Harris is doing a great job of asking questions, forgetting bad plays, and not shying away from big matchups.

Justin Simmons is having the best season of his pro career – in a contract year. I always felt when Fangio was hired that Simmons would get the biggest “Fangio bump” in his play. The Broncos head coach has always gotten great plays from the safeties who work in his defense. Simmons has the talent and incredibly high football intelligence, but during the last two seasons, he had been working in man coverage. Playing in a zone defense is much better for his skill set. Simmons is now able to roam around, watch a play unfold and swoop in to make a play on the ball, receiver or ball-carrier. Instead of having his back to the quarterback in man, Simmons now gets to read a quarterback’s eyes and respond accordingly.

Kareem Jackson was a great addition for the Broncos defense in free agency earlier this offseason. I initially thought the team added him to play cornerback, but instead they wanted him to play safety in 2019. Jackson has experience playing both positions, and he has practiced and lined up at nickel corner for the Broncos from time to time. As a safety, Jackson is an intimidating presence for the Broncos who can swoop in for big hits. With his cornerback skill set, Jackson can cover with the best of them – even when tasked with covering tight ends. The Broncos don’t hit on every free agent, but Jackson is one of their biggest hits off the open market in recent memory.

The reserves for the Broncos secondary has been tested due to injuries and bad play. Bryce Callahan was one of the most-expensive free agents the Broncos picked up this offseason and he’s yet to play a single game for the team. With Callahan out, the Broncos initially turned to guys like Isaac Yiadom and De’Vante Bausby. Neither one worked out, Yiadom due to poor play and Bausby due to injury, so the Broncos are almost on empty when it comes to backup defensive backs.

Position Grade: B+

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OTHER REPORT CARDS

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WRs and TEs
OL and DL

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