Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Jahdae Barron Is GAME CHANGER For Broncos Secondary

Starting point is 00:00:00 Jardet Barron was too good of a prospect for the Denver Broncos to pass up in the first round of the NFL draft. We'll tell you why he'll have an instant impact on day one for this team and defense. On today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Broncos country? Welcome into another episode of Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast, Eric, where you know what is your team every day for all your Broncos news, content coverage analysis and more. This is the place to be every single day all year long, a special shout out and thank you,

Starting point is 00:00:42 all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so. And if you're not yet an everydayer and you love this show, make sure you become on, hit the subscribe of that follow button wherever you get your podcast. And you'll never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team. As always, I'm Cody York, credential Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. And I'm Sarah Bedinger. site expert at predominantly orange.com.

Starting point is 00:01:05 And as we begin, our NFL draft player profile series, Broncos country, we're going to tell you why Jada Barron is a great fit here for the Broncos defense and what impact he'll have here in day one. We'll go through his fit, how his addition impacts the depth chart status of guys like Riley Moss and or J. Kwan Macmillan. We'll also go through what his top strengths are. Zone cover corner against the run. He's a sure fire tackle, a versatile player. We'll go through all that.

Starting point is 00:01:30 But where some of the weaknesses that teams could look to maybe. pick upon when he enters his rookie season here with the Orange Blue. You get all on today's episode of the show. It's brought to you our friends over there at Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. Turn any TV into your Xbox. No console needed. Head to Amazon.coms slash Fire TV locked on to learn more today. Sarah, let's begin our position preview series over the next handful of episodes.

Starting point is 00:01:54 You're going to get Sarah and I sitting down, breaking down every single Broncos draft prospect, a profile series, strengths, weaknesses, fit, projection. of that stuff. Jaade Barron, man. You know, after the draft, you know, there was that initial shock is when things happened. But now as the national media and a lot of other people around the NFL world are starting to react to the Broncos pick, they're saying that this is a great fit here for the Broncos. This was the right move for them at pick number 20.

Starting point is 00:02:22 And so let me ask you, Sarah, when we talk about Jaade Barron and his impact or his fit inside this Bronco secondary, how does this impact guys like Jaquam Macmillan, Riley Moss, second year player, Chris Abrams Drain, in your opinion. Well, I think for J-Quan-McMillan and Chris Abrams Drain specifically, I think it means those guys are going to have to compete to play in the dime defense now because Jadae Barron seems to me to be an instant day one starter, Cody. I know that the nickel is not always the, you know, it's not always the base defense, but it's kind of the base defense.

Starting point is 00:02:56 So you talk about percentages in today's NFL. So you're typically going to see those five defensive backs. looks out there for NFL teams. And with all due respect to the guys the Broncos already have on the roster, you took a guy in the first round of the NFL draft and a player who's going to be, you know, 23 this coming season, not to sit on the bench, not to just play special teams. You took this guy to contribute to your defense.

Starting point is 00:03:20 You took him because you believe that he can upgrade maybe an area of weakness for you. So I think the instant implication is that Jada Baron is going to take Jekwan Macmillan's job. And what that means, I guess, for the domino effect will be fascinating because then who comes in for the dime? Where does Jadae line up in the dime? I think maybe those are questions you're better equipped to answer at this point because the Broncos have a lot of options to be creative with Telano, Hu Fonga out there as well. He can kind of float down into the box, things like that. So I'm interested to see how they deploy him. But I think just the majority of what we're going to see from him, he's probably going to be taking over that.

Starting point is 00:04:01 top slot role. And I also realize as we're discussing this, I should have thrown Damari Mathis's name into that conversation, how it impacts him, because right now the Broncos cornerback depth, Pat Sertan, Riley Moss, Jekwon McMillan, Jadae Barron, Chris Abrams Drain, Damari Mathis. I mean, that's six guys right there. You know, to be honest with you, I could see that really being the six cornerbacks that they keep on the active roster this upcoming season. Usually you'll have either safety or corner have six players,

Starting point is 00:04:30 the other position usually has five. I could see this being the case as well. I still think DeMarie Mathis can contribute quite a bit. You have an injury or if you have two injuries, what does your depth look like? You know, hopefully you never have to get into that. But, you know, for Jaade, in terms of his fit, I feel like he'll compete with Jayquan Macmillan for starting reps.

Starting point is 00:04:49 You know, look, Jayquan has done a tremendous job working his way up from an undrafted guy into a starter and an impressive young player. So much you can't, I think, just discard him like that. I think that there is going to be competent. I don't think that the Broncos are necessarily just hand that roll over to Barron. But I do think even if, let's say, J-Quan doesn't get the starting job when the Broncos going their base nickel defense, and let's say that it is Jadae Barron, and you got Riley Moss on the outside, Pat Sertan, or you can even be creative.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Let's say it's you mix and match. Maybe you move Riley Moss around a little bit as well. The thing that Sean Payton told us after they drafted Barron was that it gives them different dynamics for what they can do to deploy defensive coverages against certain teams that have really good wide receivers. The Broncos, as we have noted, are going to play a lot of teams this year that have a lot of good wide receivers. They're going to play, obviously, a rematch with the Cincinnati Bengals. You're going to play the Los Angeles Charters. The Raiders have added talent to wide receiver position. Also, the Kansas City Chiefs have wide receivers, Philadelphia, Washington. The list goes on and

Starting point is 00:05:47 on. You're going to face some talented teams this upcoming season. And so if there's a team with really good wide receivers, you know, two or three of them, it allows you to really be flexible with how you're going to call your defensive game plan, right? Because you could put Pat Sertan on one guy the entire game, knowing you have confidence in, okay, hey, we can match this guy up against this guy, no matter what. We can match this guy up against this guy, whoever that may be, it's going to be contingent on different games and different matchups. But there is an idea in mind that Sean Payton told us that all of these corners,

Starting point is 00:06:18 they're going to be able to play inside and outside here this upcoming season. So I think the more numbers you have, the better. But yeah, how does that impact the starting? lineup there. I mean, I think the ideal projection, you don't go as high as 20 and not have the expectation where you're not going to be the starter. So I'm very curiously how Sean Payton, Vance Joseph, and then manages because also at times we know this with Vance Joseph. Historically in the past, Vance has kind of had a little bit of a problem or I'd say a hesitancy with going with the younger guys right away. I think he trusts the deferment to

Starting point is 00:06:52 the veteran guys there. Can he overcome that? Certainly when the Broncos lost Bradley Moss. We saw veteran Levi Wallace get to start over rookie Chris Abrams Drain, and Abrams Drain ended up being more impressive and gave the Broncos the best chance to do things they wanted to do from a schematic standpoint. I'm curious to see how the Broncos adjust in this category. Yeah, there's a difference between going with a guy like Fabian Moreau when you're kind of forced into doing it, right? And then keeping guys on the bench, you know, like this past season when we saw Levi Wallace out there instead of Chris Abrams Drain, who I know George Payton has said, like, he was kind of one of the slowest guys to come along last year. But then when we saw him get into the lineup late in that Cleveland game after the complete debacle that was Levi Wallace,

Starting point is 00:07:38 it kind of made you scratch your head a little bit and say, well, shoot, like, why wasn't he out there while we've been struggling this whole time? You know, what were they seeing in practices that, man, this guy just figured it out when he got thrown into a game instantly, you know? So those young players that are on this roster, you go back to a number of different guys that Vance had in Arizona that, man, it doesn't always have to be this long grind of like, let's go with the seniority. Let's go with the experienced guys. Let's go with, I'm kind of, I've talked about this on a previous episodes too, Cody, and you know this. I'm kind of sick of the, you know, my guys club. I'm sick of that. I think the Broncos have an opportunity to upgrade talent here.

Starting point is 00:08:20 and it makes your defense better if somebody like Jayquan Macmillan is demoted to the dime because he's been a pretty good slot for the last couple of years. So if you have somebody that's good enough to play in the slot on a full-time basis and throw Jayquan into that dime mix, I think that really gives you an advantage. Now, do you want to just discard players for the sake of discarding them? Absolutely not.

Starting point is 00:08:43 But the Broncos understand they're in a situation now where they're either going to have to pay Jayquan in the future and lock themselves in there or they're going to have to find a cost controlled upgrade and Jad A. Barron kind of just fell into their laps. So I think the guy's got to play. I don't know what that means about snap percentage or snap counts, but I mean, he's not playing 65, 70% or more of the snaps this season. I think it'll be a huge disappointment. Well, I think when you look at even like the two year, three year factor from now, I mean, after the season, Jayquan Macmillan will be a free agent. You also look at Damari Mathis. he'll be a free agent two years from now.

Starting point is 00:09:20 Riley Moss will be a free agent there. So the Broncos, I mean, this picture, I think, is also instantly, like, right away, but it's also envisioning maybe what they can do two or three years down the road here going forward. And maybe Vance will buck this trend a little bit because he's got that intel from his brother, who's obviously coached and knows a little bit about what Jada Barron brings to the table. So I imagine Vance has a lot of trust in that word. And look, I think with Sean Payton, I think Sean is the type of head. coach that'll tell Vance straight up, play this guy.

Starting point is 00:09:51 This guy needs to be on the field and play, whereas I don't think it was like that when Vance was the head coach in Denver previously, and there were some other guys in the mix. So I think that's something we'll keep our eyes on here going forward here. But Broncos Country, want to know what you think of Jada, Baron, where he fits into the mix here. Do you think he's going to be a starter on the outside, or do you think he's going to be a starter in the nickel?

Starting point is 00:10:10 Or do you think he'll rotate in to start his Denver Broncos career? Make sure to let's know here on today's episode of the show. but Broncos country, we're not done just yet. We're going to dive deep into now our strengths and weaknesses looking at these NFL draft prospects with Jadae Barron. We'll take a look at why he's being called in elite-level zone cover corner. How does this benefit the Broncos defense? We'll break that down much more here on today's episode of the show.

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Starting point is 00:11:03 Well, and those last minute deals are why I really love using game time because Cody, I mean, you know me. I'm a procrastinator and I was going to start a procrastinator's club, but we're going to start that up next week. We're going to wait on that one. No, but when it comes to going to events like concerts, theater, sports, the last thing you want is to miss out on an opportunity. And with GameTime, you get those last minute deals and all in pricing so that you're not missing out on creating those memories to be there to watch your favorite team or artist in person.

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Starting point is 00:12:16 Hey, Broncos country, thanks so much for making us your first listen of the day every single day. You know your boys, Cody and Sarah. We got you every day here, locked on Broncos. If you haven't done so already, we'd really appreciate it. If you take a couple seconds, hit subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. If you're everyday listeners of the show, go hit subscribe on YouTube, grow that channel, get this out in front of all of Broncos country. Cody, let's talk about Jada Barron's strengths as a player.

Starting point is 00:12:42 I know we're kind of leaving the bad news for last, but let's start with the good news. because this is a pretty clean all-around player. I mean, you hear folks talk about him and you hear, I watched interviews with Steve Sarkeesian. I watched Pro Football Focus breakdowns. I've heard Jade himself break down his own game, who he kind of compares himself to. I think there's a lot of different aspects that stand out about him,

Starting point is 00:13:09 but I know you did a film study as well, which I watched that. I threw that on the YouTube channel. And, you know, what I love watching that kind of stuff, because you get to see the full arsenal of this guy's skills in action, in motion. What is it that stands out the most to you about his game that, you know, it's big time strengths that he brings to the table?

Starting point is 00:13:28 I mean, when you watch the tape, the one thing you see right away that's not necessarily physical is that you see how smart he is of a football player. When you talk about football IQ and it's even the little nuanced details, if he's playing inside the nickel, and let's say he's to the field side, what is his leverage? Is he lined up inside to take away in the inbring? Viking routes. Usually if you're lined up inside in that regard, it means that you're more likely in man coverage. If he's head up, he could be playing man coverage, but he could just be

Starting point is 00:13:54 reacting also in match. Depends on what comes into his area. And also, I think he excels in zone. He's very smart. I think at reading route tendencies and understanding wide receiver splits. Now, there's a couple of instances on film where you really see like a condensed split by the wide receiver, right? You've got a stack formation on one. So usually there's a communication call if it's a bunch formation, you see him calling out and communicating where he's going to go, right? If he's staying inside, if he's taking outside. And then when you watch him play outside cornerbacks there, you see the traits right away where he understands cushion and he knows how to leverage that.

Starting point is 00:14:28 And when we talk about cushion, for those of you that don't know, if you've never played DB and you hear the term cushion, it means what is the yards between you and the receiver in which you're going to open up to allow you to get into phase, to get into that hip pocket so that if you're playing a guy who's faster, he doesn't get behind what is your cushion? That's that safe spot there for a lot of corners. This is a guy who's got great closing speed on routes. There was one play in particular, Sarah, where they were running cover three. And I believe this was against Georgia, one of the games where he had two interceptions this past season.

Starting point is 00:14:59 And what we call is a 80-20 rule, right? You know, in cover three, 80% of the time you're going to be playing that deep third where it's really from the sideline to the numbers. But sometimes you've got to play that 20%. If there's a route in front of you that stops short, you got to trust the curl to flat defender to get out there to be able to cover that. Whereas they ran a cover three beater, Georgia did where the number two receiver ran a post. But on the backside of the formation, Sarah, the safety had to pick up the other vertical route

Starting point is 00:15:26 because that was the most dangerous near threat. Jade closes over the top of that. There would have been no way for Georgia's quarterback to make that play. It would have been a smart play by Jada Barron. And if that quarterback threw it, he was going to come up with what would have been a third interception. Instincts off the charts. He comes up. He's a willing tackler.

Starting point is 00:15:43 These are things that stand out to me, Sarah, when I watch him on tape as strengths. And I think about the Broncos defense and how they play. He seems like just a seamless fit. Like they could put him in right away and he can have an instant impact. I truly believe that's the case. There was a great interview with him. I believe it was Brett Coleman who did the interview where he talked about his background in boxing, which Jadae was in boxing when he was in like six, seventh, eighth grade, something like that.

Starting point is 00:16:11 and he said that what really helped him as a boxer is basically gives him kind of eyes in the back of his head. So there were times that they noted, you know, watching him on tape, he would see things that was happening in his periphery without even actually looking over there. And they're like, how did you, how did you do that? Like, what's your, what do you? Because you do it consistently. And he's like, yeah, with boxing, you kind of just have this built in, you know, I'm seeing things to my right, to my left. I'm kind of feeling things like a six sense almost. and so it definitely comes across.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And you can tell how much this guy cares about football and how much it means to him. Because there was the interview that I mentioned with Steve Sarkesian earlier that I watched in the pre-draft process, Steve mentioned that when he got to Texas, they were actually telling him like, you need to get rid of this guy. Like he's a problem. And so I think the personal growth that he showed at Texas, the ability to play multiple positions and do whatever was asked of him, I believe Sarkis. even said, Cody, that when Jadae volunteered to play corner, Sarkesian was like, well, then you need to get faster.

Starting point is 00:17:16 Like, you just can't, you're, you're not fast enough to play corner. So the dude goes out and trains to get faster. And we saw him run a 4-3-9 at the scouting combine. So he brings that speed to the table. He's a hard worker. And the prerequisites, what Sean Payton said after the Broncos drafted him, what's the prerequisites for playing in the slot? Sean Payton said, you've got to be physical. You can't play in the slot and not be physical.

Starting point is 00:17:42 Jada Baron embodies physical style of play at that position. But also, I mean, you've got to be able to play a variety of different coverages, right? You've got to be able to play man. You've got to be able to play zone. And you've got to be quick to react. And he does all of these things exceptionally well. Well, I think before Sarkesian got there, that previous coaching staff in Texas, there were a lot of issues, you know, and I've heard this from players who are now in the NFL that

Starting point is 00:18:06 I talked about how a lot of coaches mismanaged the roles of players. They put them in spots where they were set up for failure. So part of me is wondering if that was the case with Jaday early on in his career. But man, I mean, he's grown so much from, I think, his freshman season, you know, then you look the evolution. Obviously, now his senior year, I mean, he puts on a terrific season. It wins the Jim Thorpe Award. And obviously, he's one of the higher draft the corners, which we can't say he is the best

Starting point is 00:18:33 cornerback drafted in this year's draft because it seems like Travis Hunter in Jacksonville is probably going to play a lot of offense and probably not going to play much defense over there. So I find that to be interesting that Devere lands, you know, a top tier corner. And look, I think there are a lot of things to Barron's game that he can continue to improve on, but you don't really see any weaknesses from his game, so to speak. When you talk about, okay, is this something that's problematic that you got to worry

Starting point is 00:18:58 about teams identifying and say, hey, we're going to go after you in this regard. There really isn't that because I think of the things that you mentioned, the measurables, the speed, the trend. traits, the physicality. The one thing you always want to know with the cornerbacks here, are you afraid to come up and tackle, right? Or are you going to make a business decision as some other teams and other corners around the NFL have done? Denver's got, I think, a handful of corners back. You look at four corners on the roster now that love to tackle, they get their hands dirty. Pat Sartan, J-Quahman-McMillan, Riley Moss,

Starting point is 00:19:27 and now you add Jada Baron into the mix. He's in that category as well. And then you factor in. You got Tala Noah, Hufanga, Brandon Jones. Denver's defense on paper right now, Sarah is scary. Jadae makes them, I think, even scarier going forward. And if this is a unit that can stay healthy this season, I'm very, very excited because now we talk about Fance Joseph sending a lot of pressure. You bring in guys like Drake Greenlaw. You have the NFL's top defensive line from last year in terms of sacks generated with 63, and you have the outside linebackers that you do. You're going to blitz guys a lot more effective. You're going to play man-to-man coverage more. This is going to lead to potentially more sacks,

Starting point is 00:20:05 more force fumbles and or if you force the quarterbacks clock to speed up and you throw it into a window, you're throwing it against smart defensive backs and ought to make plays on the ball. More potential takeaway opportunities for the secondary, which I'm all aboard that train here. But Broncos country, we want to know what you think of Jada Baron, some of his biggest strengths that you've seen when you've watched him, whether it's highlights, whether it's all 22 film. Make sure you let us know here on today's episode of the show. We're going to get into what are some of the weaknesses here for Jada. Can his aggressiveness that he displays on tape?

Starting point is 00:20:35 Is that something that could get him in trouble a little bit at the NFL level? We'll debate and discuss here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to by our friends over there at Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. And did you know that your fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV stick 4K devices. No console is required. Just grab your paired controller. Subscriber sign in to XX.

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Starting point is 00:21:38 And my son doesn't even know about it yet. It'll be a nice little surprise for him. But you can take this wherever you go. It's so much easier than dragging a console along with you. And you know what? You can play these favorite games and watch your favorite shows that you stream wherever you plug it in. It's so easy.

Starting point is 00:21:53 Head to Amazon.com slash fire TV locked on to get started. Today Xbox GamePass Ultimate subscription and compatible control. required available on select devices, including Fire TV stick 4K second generation, fire TV stick 4K max, first and second generation, and fire TV cube third generation. As we jump into the fourth quarter action on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. We want to say thank you once again to everyone in Broncos country. All the every dayers out there for tuning in making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so.

Starting point is 00:22:25 And look, Broncos, we're going to go and through some of the potential weaknesses that Jada Barron may have, that teams must. might look at to attack as he enters his rookie season of the NFL, maybe how the Broncos can help him make these strengths in his game. You'll get that here today. But real quick, if you can, if you go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure you go there, leave us a five-star review. Tell us why you listen.

Starting point is 00:22:45 Tell us if you're in every day or it would mean the world. And when you do that, here's what it does. It automatically puts locked on Broncos out to a larger audience of members out there who aren't yet subscribed to the show. So you have an opportunity to help the show grow. Thank you so much, Broncos Country. It's what that said, Sarah, let's dive into some potential perceived weaknesses here of Jada Baron. Now, obviously, as you go through the NFL draft process, teams are filling out these player profiles.

Starting point is 00:23:08 What are the strengths of this player? What are the weaknesses? And there are some that when you look at some draft analysts and some of the guides that have been put out there, you know, Dane Brugler's the Beast, there have been some noted perceived weaknesses here. But none of them, in my opinion, when you look at them are things that are definitive or like, wow, this is something that you can't overcome. What are your thoughts on some of these ones here? Well, I think when you look at some of the weaknesses, like, you know, it's when you read them about Jad A. Barron, it's almost like, you know, when you go into a job interview and you're like, you know, my weaknesses is that I care too much. I just, I put too much time into everything. I put way too much thought. You know, it's like one of those things, right? It's like almost, okay, we got to make stuff up. But aggressiveness, I think at the cornerback position, Cody, and I was even noticing this a little bit on your film review as well, aggressiveness can always get.

Starting point is 00:23:58 corners into trouble. It happens to everybody. I mean, shoot, it happened to Pat Sertan last year in his defensive player of the year season where, I mean, like him or not, he was called for quite a bit more penalties. And I think anybody really cared to see. And again, the guy knows how to play the cornerback position. So we're not worried about that by any means. But we saw a lot of penalties for Riley Moss. We saw a lot of penalties for Jayquan Macmill. These guys are just aggressive. They want to go after the ball. They hunt. And I think it plays into another strength of his, which is, Jade finds the ball. He doesn't wait for the ball to find him.

Starting point is 00:24:32 He finds the ball. He goes hunting out there, but that aggressiveness can put you in tough positions technique-wise at times to where you might get called for penalties in the NFL that didn't necessarily get called at the college level. Well, and I think one of those instances, we can go through the infamous moment this past season is happening against Georgia.

Starting point is 00:24:50 It was actually one of his interceptions, initially called defensive pass interference, which I think if you look at the tape, you can make an argument, yes, worst case, it's a legal contact there, right? So still a penalty. That's obviously going to be a penalty at the NFL level. But he, you know, the receiver is running vertical. And it looks like the receiver is going to stop at the sticks, but he runs really into Jade Barron. And so

Starting point is 00:25:12 Jadee is trying to position himself because corners, contrary to NFL rules or college football rules believe defensive players, defensive players. And so there was this moment where it looked like Jade had caught the receiver a little bit. There was some contact. He ends up jumping it. It's intercepted. It's return all the way. downfield initially called defensive pass interference. But this was the moment where Texas fans were so mad sir that they were throwing stuff onto the field and it forced the officials to change the call. And obviously led to this kind of becoming a trend.

Starting point is 00:25:42 I think over the next couple of weeks for other schools around the country when they didn't like a call that officials did, which folks don't do that. That's not a good luck. Go to an event. Don't throw things on the field. Don't be that person. But, you know, one thing I like about it is that aggressiveness, right? And one thing I know about Vance Joseph's defense, Jim Leonard's coaching philosophy,

Starting point is 00:26:01 everything is smart, but they are ultimately asked to be aggressive here. And when you factor in man coverage and blitz, it's a matter of timing. So if your blitz isn't getting home, can you as a defensive back? Can you react quick enough to step in and get proper leverage to make a play on a football on an in-breaking route vertically or even on the outside? That's, you know, something that is asked here. I don't think the aggressiveness is necessarily a weakness, though I do think it's something that you have to kind of reel in a little bit.

Starting point is 00:26:27 You have to be, what is it, not spotty. You got to pick and choose the right times to be aggressive because there's a difference between being ultra-aggressive and that leading to penalties, which I think Damari Mathis is his rookie season. He played ultra-aggressive and it led to a lot of pass interference calls, and that was a little frustrating, I think, in the eyes of Broncos fans, but I'm not necessarily worried about this being something

Starting point is 00:26:46 that's going to be an issue for Jaadé as a rookie or even in his career. There's going to be times he's going to get flagged. It's the nature of the business when you play defensive back. But there's some other things as well that people are talking about. You know, Texas, they ran variances of a lot of zone coverage. They did go man to man coverage sometimes. And I know there have been some questions as to can he be an effective man cover corner? I mean, Sarah, you talk about the speed.

Starting point is 00:27:08 He has four three speed at that point. Great hips, great footwork. I think he can play man coverage. Fine. The question is, is how often are the Broncos going to ask him to do that? And granted, everyone's going to be asked to do that from time to time. Right, which I think that is going to be fun to kind of see play out. and you know it's up to jim leonard and vance joseph to make sure that he's put in the right positions

Starting point is 00:27:30 to succeed because what is riley moss and pat or tan best at them of their best they're good at both but i mean they're best when you're playing press man you know when they're up there using your physicality getting your hands on a guy making him you're making the first move essentially and those guys can break on the ball too but it's just one of those things to where you would have loved to have seen a little bit more of that maybe or or maybe not so much much of a heavy lean towards the other. But at the same time, again, it's all about how these guys get deployed, which I think that to me is going to be one of the most interesting things, right? You kind of mention how Vance Joseph has been with rookies in the past. Is that going to be

Starting point is 00:28:09 the case with Jada Baron? How is the marriage between Joseph and Jim Leonard there in the secondary? How is that going to work out in terms of making sure that he's in the right position to succeed? And, you know, you see these positionless players elsewhere around the league having success. I mean, Cooper DeGine is a great example. Brian Branch, Tykee Smith, a lot of these guys that, you know, Zaday is getting compared to coming out. Can the Broncos effectively add that into the mix defensively? And, you know, utilize his versatility to its fullness as opposed to saying,

Starting point is 00:28:43 hey, shoot, we keep on putting this guy in the wrong spot. You know, he's playing safety when he should be playing in the slot or, you know, whatever, you don't want him to look bad out there, essentially, right? Especially as a rookie. So maybe not putting too much on his plate and just ask him to do a few things really well. Find a role for him and let him grow into that. And then I think over time you can start adding stuff. Because as we all know, the NFL, there's a different level of complexity to it in terms of coverage calls, how things are run.

Starting point is 00:29:09 But I do think that the college game for a lot of major programs has kind of caught up to terminology and the amount of knowledge needed to know how to play. And look, I think for Barron at Texas to play that star position to play nickel, corner, safety. just that joker type piece here for a defensive side of the ball. That is so hard to do. And the NFL level is going to certainly demand that. But when you have a guy like Pat Sartan and you have other guys like Riley Moss, Jayquan, Macmillan, guys that can cover. I think really that takes a lot of pressure off of Barron's plate that to come in

Starting point is 00:29:41 and just put up star level numbers right away because, yes, he's a rookie. I think teams are going to test him. But I think Barron's the type of guy where teams aren't going to test him as much over time after I think the first six weeks of the season. And so I'm excited to see how things are going to play out here. But Broncos Country, we appreciate you so much for tuning in. Rocking with us on today's episode, Lockdown, Broncos. That'll wrap up today's episode of the show of our player profile series.

Starting point is 00:30:04 We kick things off with Jada Baron. Well, Broncos Country, you know what we're going to get to tomorrow. We're going to take a look at R.J. Harvey. We're going to take a look at his role potentially in the debt chart. Is he a day one starter? Is he a rotational guy? What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses?

Starting point is 00:30:17 You're going to get all that. And much more. On tomorrow's episode of the show, lock in. Thank you.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Jahdae Barron Is GAME CHANGER For Broncos Secondary

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