A No Bull look at the Denver Broncos secondary roster, its strengths, weaknesses, and what we can expect George Paton and Sean Payton to target this offseason
With the Denver Broncos offseason kicking off, it is a great time to step back, take a look at the roster, and play a little armchair GM leading up to all of the excitement of possible free-agent signings, trades, and of course the NFL Draft.
Let me give a tip of the hat to www.footballguys.com for their information on snap percentages and www.overthecap.com for their information on current contracts for all players.
All of this is my personal opinion based on my tried-and-true eye test of what I’ve seen from these players on the field this season. For the sake of brevity, I’ll be leaving out guys who didn’t see the field in any significant way in 2024 and most Unrestricted Free Agents.
Enjoy the discussion, join the subjective debate, and share your thoughts (good or bad) in the comments.
Next up, we’ll examine the defensive secondary and determine what holes the Broncos should look to fill in the 2025 NFL offseason.
Player Rating Key
- Project / developmental – lacking necessary skills to contribute as it stands today
- Backup quality – Can play, but isn’t a guy you want out there every snap
- Average starter – Doesn’t bring anything special to the table, but can do the job
- Good starter – An above-average talent
- Blue chip player – Top 10 talent in the NFL at what he does
Unit Rating Key
- Critical Need – lack of talent at starter and depth
- Lacking at least one starter
- Mediocre need
- Solid talent and depth
- Elite talent level
Cornerback
Patrick Surtain II – 5
Patrick Surtian II is the best cornerback playing in today’s game. While he’s not perfect (no cornerback is), it is very rare that he misreads a play or is in the wrong technique. He’s a true student of the game. Guys like this define the units they play on.
While I’ve been very vocal this season about the great job Vance Joseph has done, a lot of the credit for the scheme the Broncos use should go to Surtain. A cornerback of this caliber allows you to take away one receiver every play without regard whatsoever to sending help to Surtain.
Riley Moss – 4
Riley Moss’ story this season was very similar to Bo Nix’s (though this is Moss’ 2nd season). He started off with the envious assignment of playing across from Surtain and getting picked on. It wasn’t pretty early on, but as he went through his trial by fire as the season wore on, he just got better and better.
The future is bright for Moss. He’s got excellent man coverage technique and when he was out with injury, the scheme for the defense honestly fell apart as it had to switch to largely zone coverage as the team didn’t have anyone behind him that could man up as well.
I’m very encouraged by Moss. He’s a young player with a high ceiling who is still climbing. He’s got a great opportunity with this team to turn into a very dangerous corner if he can round off a few sharp edges (especially his ability to diagnose and react).
Ja’Quan McMillian – 3
This is also Ja’Quan McMillian’s second year with the team. He plays slot corner for the team the vast majority of the time. I thought he looked better last year than he did this season.
He’s a player who has versatility. He can blitz the passer, play zone or man well, and is a sure tackler. The only negative on McMillian is his size. He’s not a guy you typically want to kick outside against the taller receivers. He plays fiercely, though, and looks like a guy that has taken a page from Chris Harris Jr.’s book in using technique to make up for size mismatches.
Kris Abrams-Draine – 3
Rookie Kris Abrams-Draine got some very valuable snaps this season. When the Levi Wallace depth experiment went up in flames, he got some very valuable time filling in in weeks 15 and 16 and represented himself very well.
He’s another guy that lacks size, but I liked his play. He was quick, reacted well, and didn’t look lost when called on. Next season will be an excellent opportunity for him to step up and take a bigger role on the defense possibly as an extra sub package guy that sees more snaps throughout the season.
Unit Rating – 4
I’d give this unit a 5, but they had problems with not having depth that can help the defense not miss a beat if a guy goes down. The cornerback room is very young overall and needs to either develop the guys they have into better players who can step in and step up, or bring in another free agent who can handle the outside corner position.
I think we’ll see the addition of a corner either in free agency or the draft. I see the team wanting another guy with some height who can play outside cornerback.
Safety
P.J. Locke – 2
It is a testament to the coaching of the defensive staff for the Broncos that they made it through a season with P.J. Locke as their starting safety. He’s honestly a backup quality player who started all season from what I see of his game.
The big problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to diagnose what’s happening quickly enough to identify what he needs to do to impact plays. He gives too much cushion to his coverage responsibilities which ends up giving up chunks of yardage without a chance for him to impact the play.
Brandon Jones – 4
Brandon Jones was one of the better free agent signings this past offseason by the Broncos. He started at strong safety and was a playmaker who was impactful against the pass and the run. His coverage is sound and he’s well able to attack the run.
Devon Key – 1
Devon Key was a rookie this season and his play reflected that to a high degree. With Locke missing weeks 8 and 9, Key got some serious reps. He looked good enough against a bad Panthers team in week 8, but the Ravens tore the Broncos secondary to pieces with Key being one of the two players they keyed on.
The good thing about Key is that he’s a rookie and was probably doing too much too soon. This is a critical year for Key. He needs a great camp to develop into a player who can help his team at this level.
Unit Rating – 1
The safety position is honestly pretty bereft of talent. We don’t have a free safety and we don’t have depth players who can really help the team in sub packages or step in and keep the defense afloat if we lose a starter.
The Broncos can and should both draft some talent this season and bring in a free agent. We need a vet who can step in at free safety and hold it down and we need talent to develop as well.
Defensive roster status overall
Interior Linemen 3
Edge 4
Inside Linebackers 1
Cornerbacks 4
Safety 1