The Denver Broncos don’t have much depth at inside linebacker going into the summer. Josey Jewell is the proven veteran in the room and he seemingly has one of the two starting jobs locked down.
Next to Jewell, newly signed Alex Singleton (who’s been best utilized on special teams to this point in his career) and Jonas Griffith (a second-year player) appear set to compete for a starting job this offseason.
Meanwhile, at outside linebacker, Denver is loaded with depth.
In addition to starters Bradley Chubb and Randy Gregory, the Broncos now have second-round pick Nik Bonitto, rotational rushers Malik Reed and Jonathon Cooper, special teams ace Aaron Patrick and undrafted gem Christopher Allen. The OLB is crowded, so much so that it wouldn’t be surprising to see Denver trade a pass rusher closer to roster cuts.
With little proven depth at ILB and an abundance of options at OLB, it’s perplexing then, that the Broncos have had Baron Browning working as an outside linebacker this spring.
“He’s done a great job,” defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said last week when asked about Browning’s time at OLB. “He did really well in the first minicamp we had. He really displayed some things, showed some really good rush ability.
“Obviously, with the transition, he has to get better at some of the fundamentals in terms of hitting blocks and setting the edge and he’s been doing a great, great job. He’s been working his butt off. He’s coming along.”
Denver also wanted to have Browning spend some time on the outside last year, but he played inside out of necessity due to various injuries. Browning played in 14 games as an ILB last season, earning nine starts. He performed well, totaling 58 tackles (two behind the line of scrimmage), two pass breakups and one quarterback hit.
After a strong showing as a rookie, Browning seemed poised to start at ILB this year. Instead, based on the current depth chart, he appears to be somewhat buried as a rotational rusher. So what’s the deal?
It’s possible that the Broncos are very confident in one of Singleton or Griffith, and it’s also possible that we might be reading into Browning’s spring position too much. Browning practicing as an OLB now doesn’t mean he has to exclusively play there in the fall. In fact, Denver might be planning a hybrid role, perhaps similar to the Micah Parsons role in Dallas.
There’s also the old adage of never having too many pass rushers.
“You can never have enough pass rushers,” Evero said. “We’ll take all of them. We’ll take every one of them.”
Rushing the passer is obviously imperative, but if the Broncos have plenty of productive rushers, Browning might be most helpful on the inside. Time will tell.