Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Training Camp: Cornerback Room LOADED Going Into Camp

Starting point is 00:00:00 Heading into training camp, the Denver Broncos cornerback room is the deepest position on the team. And there's some exciting training camp position battles at this position that will break down. And much more on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening at Broncos country? Welcome into another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, where you know it's your team.

Starting point is 00:00:35 every day as we continue our training camp position previews here, set the stage for this upcoming season. A special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. Make sure if you're not yet in every day, become one, hit that subscribe with that follow button wherever you get your podcast or YouTube so you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports. And I'm Sarah Bedinger, site expert at preominantly orange.com. And here's what you could expect on today's episode of the show as we continue our training camp position previews.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Yes, this is the fun time where we take a look at every position group and we'll also break down every position battle. The biggest question there at that position as well as the team prepares for the start of training camp later on this month. We're focusing on cornerback and why the Broncos cornerback group right now is the deepest position on this football team going into training camp. We'll talk about which players we anticipate will play the most snaps at corner, what matchups might be contingent upon who gets to, use the most. And we'll go through why Jada Baron and Jekwon MacMillan are two names to watch for some of the more important position battles that will take place here in the month of July, leading through August to set the table for the 2025 NFL season. Sarah, let's go through our overview here to start. Obviously, the Broncos cornerback room returning the reigning,

Starting point is 00:01:52 defending undisputed defensive player of the year, Pat Sertan to the room. And obviously, you're one of the best players in all of the National Football League right now. And this room right now, considering where it was at last season when they lost Riley Moss, you look at this Broncos cornerback room right now on paper. It's arguably the deepest that they've had in a handful of years. It is. And it's one of the most exciting position groups on the team with that combination of you got the defensive player of the year out there, but you've also got all these guys that are young. They're on rookie contracts, right? And that's what's so exciting is that there's so much talent. And yet the Broncos,

Starting point is 00:02:30 they're not really paying the price for it, other than Pat Sertan, who's getting paid more, I guess, what he deserves and then some, right? I mean, he's one of the highest paid defensive backs in league history at this point. But certainly you feel like the Broncos are getting a pretty good bang for their buck, even though Pat Sertan is on that big money deal.

Starting point is 00:02:47 They are, I mean, they've scouted well. They continue to take shots in the NFL draft year over year. That's one of George Payton's things. You can go back and look at some of his later classes with the Minnesota Vikings as well, just constantly using high draft capital on defensive backs. The reason for that is we know you pass the ball a ton in today's NFL. You got to have guys back there in coverage that can make plays.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And you certainly feel like the Broncos have a plethora of players that can do that. And it's fun to see sort of every area of the draft and after being touched, right? You got your first rounder, Pat Sertan, got your day two steel. Riley Moss, got the undrafted guy, J-Quan Macmillan, another first rounder in Jada, Barron coming in, Day three's draft steel, Chris Abrams drain. There's guys all over the depth chart here. And now you've got a UFO guy coming in, right, Cody? So it's just kind of every stone is getting turned over to make this one of the deepest

Starting point is 00:03:41 cornerback rooms in the league today, if not the deepest. And you're always going to have a lot of players at this position and safety at training camp because there's a handful of wide receivers, a handful of tight ends and skill players that all these guys are going to have to cover here as the team looks to try to formulate their best 53-man roster. And certainly over the last handful of years, we've seen Denver alternate between keeping five cornerbacks, six safeties, six corners, five safeties. Who knows what it's going to be this year. And so much of that is going to be contingent upon special teams impact. But I think it's safe to say right now with this deepest cornerback room that this team has had in quite some

Starting point is 00:04:16 time, I think there are a handful of guys who are solidified locks. I think that there are four guys who are evident roster locks right now. Obviously, Pat Sartan, Rodley Moss, Jayquan Macmillan, And Jade Barron, the first round draft pick that the Broncos got this year, that they felt like Corner is an elite premium position. It is a position of need no matter how many guys you have at the NFL because if you lose one guy due to an injury, there is a massive drop off, often at times for most NFL teams. And the Broncos, they experienced that firsthand. They had a veteran option that it felt like, hey, if something happens, we got a veteran guy who's got a lot of experience in Levi Wallace, that maybe this guy can step up.

Starting point is 00:04:54 No, that was not the case here for the Broncos, which I think. think goes to show how much scheme fit matters over veteran status any day. At least Fabian Moreau was more productive when he was on the Broncos defense at cornerback as a veteran option a couple of years ago. But when Riley Moss went down with that injury, Denver's defense, they struggled, right? And teams, they stopped. They didn't throw to Pat Sir Tan's way, but they went Levi Wallace's way to the point that Broncos had to invest and say, hey, we've got to go to our rookie, Chris Abrams,

Starting point is 00:05:22 Drain, who maybe we should have gone to him a little bit sooner in this approach. the addition of Jada Baron makes this Broncos cornerback room deeper, but also I think gives them some security, some insurance. In the event, there is an injury to one of these players, one of the key guys there, whether it be J-Qaughan McMillan, Riley Moss, or Pat Sertan. Yeah, they have the ability to weather the storm over an 18 game season. I know we bring this quote up all the time, but Vic Fangio once famously said,

Starting point is 00:05:48 there's basically 96 starting corners in the NFL, and there ain't 96 starting corners in the NFL, right? because you ultimately spend most of your time playing in the nickel alignment, which means every team has three starting corners. And because of that, you've got to have way more depth than you realize. That's why people always say, well, you can never have too many good corners. That's so true in today's NFL. And the Broncos are a prime example of that last year when they had Levi Wallace come into that Cleveland game.

Starting point is 00:06:17 And nearly, I mean, shoot, it could have cost them the playoffs. Ultimately, Cody, if they had lost that game, a huge match. up for them in terms of their AFC standing. So it looms large over the course of the year to have that depth. But more so than just depth, it feels like the Broncos have like quality talent across the board. I think maybe six or seven guys who could legitimately play in the NFL and then a couple of wild cards who developed all last year on the practice squad, right? Quentin Newsom, Reese Taylor.

Starting point is 00:06:46 They brought in a couple of undrafted guys this year as well to try and develop them. But I mean, shoot, nobody really even talks about Damari Mathis at this point. who could probably play for a number of teams. I know in our last episode that we did earlier this off season about Damari, it seemed like a lot of fans are saying, oh, Damari Mathis stinks, guy can't play, nobody would want to trade for him, things like that. I think Damari's even kind of underrated in that way that he could play if needed.

Starting point is 00:07:11 And he could probably play pretty well if the Broncos were leaning on him as one of their top four guys this year. So it's a very good group. It's athletic. They've got ball skills. They're physical. They understand what they're being asked. to do. They communicate well. And they've got some of the best coaches in the league, Cody.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Jim Leonard, obviously, past game specialist, a defensive backs coach, Vance Joseph is a DB's guy, and then other assistants as well. They're getting set up in really great positions to succeed. That's why I love their depth there. And look, I agree with you on Damari Mathis. Damari is very underrated. So many people have already written Damari Mathis off. And look, he's playing in the last year of his rookie deal. There's a massive chip on Damari's shoulder. And I think a lot of the hate that Damari has gotten, about his play. I think a lot of it's unwarranted. I mean, he stepped up in a big way as a rookie. You know, there were some concern about pass interference calls. He was seeing a lot of

Starting point is 00:08:02 targets opposite of guess who, Pat Sertan. And it wasn't bad penalties. It was subject, tickey tack like, oh, that's 50, 50 could be called early, could be called, you know, it shouldn't be called. You know, there's the fine line between some of those plays there. And then year number two, the biggest issue for Damari was injuries. You know, he dealt with some injuries at that point. You know, you factor in obviously the early season struggles that the Broncos had in 2023 where they made widespread personnel changes to their defensive scheme. And then you saw some of that kind of trickled down a little bit where Damari was a little

Starting point is 00:08:35 bit in the doghouse. And he had to embrace the role on special teams in order to get off. And then really last year, it's just the emergence of Riley Moss that really kind of put Damari on the back burner in that cornerback competition. But Damari, I felt like stepped up in a big way for Denver late down the stretch last season. You go to that Cleveland game. DeMari started playing a little bit more on the dime inside the slot, not playing on the outside. And this is a guy who's just trying to get an opportunity to get on the field.

Starting point is 00:08:59 You know, he's never had a bad attitude about what is happening anytime he's gotten benched. I think DiMari is a guy that people shouldn't write off necessarily just yet. And he's going to obviously be one of the players we highlight in some of our position battles to watch for here as the Broncos begin training camp a little bit later on this month. The Broncos country coming up next will tell you why Jada Baron versus Jekwon Macmillan will be the show to watch. when you talk about competition at the cornerback position, you're going to get that much more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos podcast is brought to you by friends over there at the Game Time app. And we've all been there logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale

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Starting point is 00:10:36 Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Having depth is a great problem to have in the NFL, but it also begs the question, who's going to be playing the majority of snaps out there, and especially when you talk about cornerback for the Denver Broncos, it's an interesting question because probably five, if not more starting caliber players out there.

Starting point is 00:10:59 That's what we're going to discuss on today's training camp preview for the cornerback position here at lockdown Broncos. And Cody, I'm excited because you feel like this is the biggest strength on the team. You feel like maybe the Broncos could even trade from some of this depth, which I know we'll talk about down the line here. But I think the biggest question at, cornerback going into training camp for the Denver Broncos is who's actually going to play. And we know Pat Sertan's going to play. We know Riley Moss is going to play.

Starting point is 00:11:25 I know there's some listeners that would disagree with that. And so maybe we can talk about that as well. But I think that those two guys are for sure going to play. What do you see being the snap dividing between a player like J-Quan Macmillan, who's been starting for two years, and then Jaude A. Barron, who's obviously got that first round draft pick label. Yeah, it's, it's tough to gauge because, I mean, J-Quam Macmillan is a very impressive under the radar, nickel defender that I thought stepped up, emerge on the scene for the Broncos in 2023. 2024, you know, I think he still played at a high level. You know, there were some times where he gave up some catches on the inside there.

Starting point is 00:12:04 It seemed like there were some miscommunications on the Broncos defensively. But certainly I think it warranted the Broncos saying, hey, like now we're going to bring in a guy in Jaday Barron, who's an elite level premium player at a premium position that we view as value. in today's NFL with all the wide receivers that you have to face, all the quarterbacks, and how much this game has evolved really into a passing league. You have to have that level of diversity. And you have a guy who can maybe play outside and inside. But the vision here for Jaude Barron is going to be inside the nickel primarily.

Starting point is 00:12:33 And that's not really in question right now. He can play outside, but the vision for him is playing inside the nickel. That's where the Broncos liked a lot of what they saw. And granted, he can do some of the other things they need on the outside. But I really think that this is going to be the premier position battle to watch here for the Broncos. And regardless of who wins, Sarah, the other player is going to be on this roster, right? So if Jaquan Macmillan wins the competition during training camp in the preseason, Jaudey Baron is still going to play plenty of defensive snaps this upcoming season.

Starting point is 00:13:04 You know, I think the Broncos have flexibility in how they can call the defense, who they can match guys up on. And if Jada Baron wins the job, J'Quain MacMill is still going to be playing quite a bit of football here for this Denver Broncos defense. So I think it's a luxury right now. You just want to see who's going to get the job here. I think just naturally being a first round pick, Jada Baron, you're always going to have pressure as the first round pick because people are like, well, if he doesn't play, then he's a bust.

Starting point is 00:13:27 I think that's a stupid narrative. I think people have to stop thinking like that because I've already seen that. People were even going back in the offseason programs here and they're saying, hey, no one's talking about Jada Baron. That must mean that he's a bus. No, you don't have to talk about the guy in order for him to be a good player for him to be looking good. That's fine.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Like with this Broncos cornerback room, the fact that we're not talking about him as much in the offseason program, that's good news. Let him continue to learn the playbook and grow. He's doing great. He's going to do great here in training camp. And I think that that's going to be the most exciting thing here. But in terms of overall number of snaps played at corner, Sarah, I think it's a safe assumption right now to say that PS2, Raleigh Moss, those guys will probably have the higher volume of overall snaps. And then I think really, whoever wins that nickel job for the Broncos, they're going to play, I think, an equal amount of stuff. snaps as to those guys, depending on how often the Broncos are in nickel, because at one point,

Starting point is 00:14:17 really last year, that was their base, was the base nickel versus just your standard base defense where you have two corners and you have two safeties. It's different. You know, base nickel means, hey, we got an extra defensive back in here. We're going with five guys versus four. I don't have a definitive answer for you, but that's how we think it will go. If the Broncos secondary is like, you know, a hand of cards in the game, Uno, I think Jada Baron could be sort of like that wildcard that, you know, you say, okay, who's going to play the most snaps at corner this year? And I think maybe you can shift it a little bit to say, well, what if I got this wild card right here in Jada Baron? What if he ends up having to play a little

Starting point is 00:14:56 safety because we know he played some safety at the college level. We know the Broncos, you know, again, the war on attrition affects every position group. Jade is good at that. And I know that the Broncos aren't necessarily going to transition him to safety. But what if injuries necessitate that over the course of a season to say, we need our best five guys out there at all times. And ultimately, Jade is one of the best five, but somebody else goes down with an injury. And then you have to kind of reshuffle things. I think he could be that wild card that Vance Joseph could say, all right,

Starting point is 00:15:27 if Hufanga goes down for a game or two, Jade Barron's going to play that position, and J-Quan's going to step into the slot. And they can feel good about those sorts of things. Riley Moss goes down for a game where Pat Sartan goes down for a game. You feel comfortable about putting Jadae on the outside, right? So I think he's one of those guys that you can pencil in for anywhere, not that he's only going to be an injury replacement, but he is somebody that I do feel like the Broncos could move around as a wildcard

Starting point is 00:15:54 option to get the best five out on the field all times. I would say as well in the offseason program, the Broncos also believe that Jave J-Quon could play outside. There's been times in the offseason program. It was during OTAs when Pat wasn't there for that one OTA practice that we had where they had JMAQ on the outside, Jadae, inside the nickel and Riley on the other outside position. So we know that J.Mack can also play on the outside there. You know, for me as well, like we could even see a transition.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Just depends on who you play, where the Broncos might just stay and dime quite a bit, right? Or they go with that big dime where, you know, you have a guy like J.L. Skinner or a Tala Oahu Fonga can drop down and play. And maybe you rotate another guy back at the same. safety position. I mean, the Broncos have flexibility here, but let's get into maybe some of the bigger position battles to watch here as it pertains to like a Jayquan Macmillan versus Jaudey Barron. What are the strengths of these guys here? I look at J. Mack. This is a guy who I think is very good in past coverage inside the slot, which is a tough job to do. But the one thing I think that

Starting point is 00:16:54 Jayquan does really well as well, Sarah, he comes up and runs support. He's a really good tackler. He takes good angles. He never gets beat in terms of letting guys outside of him in the run game. this is where I think he has an advantage, but you look at Jard Day's college tape, he's also good against the run. Like the Broncos have two guys that can play in the slot that are good against the pass, good against the run,

Starting point is 00:17:14 and that is hard to find in today's game. It is. I mean, when you talk about J-Quann-McMillan, he's had three sacks over the last two years, 11 tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, and then 139 career tackles,

Starting point is 00:17:28 including 81 last season. So he is physical. He does come. up and run support. He can make plays behind the line of scrimmage. And matter of fact, Cody, he's made some really big plays. Like, he's had three forced fumbles over the last two seasons as well. So I think his production obviously works in his favor. He definitely shouldn't be getting written off.

Starting point is 00:17:48 This is why I think this is maybe the most interesting discussion of the off season because it's getting underrated because nobody's really considering the idea that, well, there's, the Broncos have four corners that. should be playing and starting and playing a starter snaps. And yet typically you only see three guys get that share in a defensive scheme. So how they utilize these guys is going to be really interesting to see come time for the regular season. I think we'll see these guys on the field quite a bit. But I mean, obviously somebody is going to be playing a smaller percentage than the public is expecting at this point.

Starting point is 00:18:28 And I think ultimately that will be that will be J-Quan Macmillan, although I don't know. I mean, maybe not. Maybe Jada Baron and he's going to be brought along slower as a rookie and the Broncos are going to let him kind of play a more versatile role. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But I think it's really a fascinating discussion because of Macmillan's productivity.

Starting point is 00:18:48 Broncos country, make sure you show your thoughts on us on J. Mack versus Jada Barron for the starting nickel job here for the Broncos this upcoming season. Your thoughts on how that may go here. Let's get to another one as well. I think really we talked about there being forced, solidified cornerback spots here with Barron, PS2, Riley Moss, and Jay Mack here. But what does that fifth one look like? Right now, you got a few guys competing.

Starting point is 00:19:10 You know, Damari Mathis, we talked about earlier. I think we'll see Damari Mathis versus Chris Abrams Drain versus Mario Goodrich. And it's kind of tough for a guy like Quentin Newsom right now because Quentin Newsom may very well be a practice squad guy. Once again, the Broncos really liked how he helped them last year. How do you see this one going? Because right now I look at it as though Damari's got this chip on his shoulder. where he's the underdog here.

Starting point is 00:19:32 I think the advantage right now on paper kind of lends itself to Chris Abrams drain, who shined in the small sample size we saw from him last season, even though the Broncos, they believed and they obviously said it. They acknowledged it publicly that out of all the rookies last season, he had the slowest start to coming along. But man, when he got in the field, he was impressive last year. He really was. And I think that's his biggest advantage right now,

Starting point is 00:19:56 along with the fact that he still has three years left on his rookie deal, as opposed to Damari Mathis, who's entering the final year of his contract, and Broncos are looking at paying quite a bit for him to either ride the pine or play only special teams. So certainly that's going to be a factor in this discussion. And of course, we've talked about this before. You want to do right by a player like that, right? Who's getting ready for free agency next year. You don't want him just sitting and rotting on your bench, especially when it comes to this discussion of,

Starting point is 00:20:25 even in the event of injury, he may not go out there and play because we have other guys ahead of him on the depth chart. That's where I think you get into that discussion about this guy could really be traded. And I do think some teams would have interest in that. I mean, certainly, Cody, not every team has corners as talented as Demari Mathis. I think the Broncos are spoiled in that way. Yeah. And I think maybe some teams to keep an eye on teams of familiarity. The New York Jets with Darren Mojee now over there, obviously had a big part in the draft process for Demari coming in. I think the Philadelphia Eagles with Christian Parker being the passing game coordinator over there for Vic Fangio could be an option over there for Vic's defense.

Starting point is 00:21:03 And then I'll even go to the lengths of saying, okay, hey, keeping on the three teams that the Broncos are playing the preseason, the San Francisco 49ers, the Arizona Cardinals, and the New Orleans Saints there. That's all, I think, things that we have to keep our eye on here as potential trade destinations, which, I mean, if the Broncos view like, hey, we've invested draft capital we like where Abrams Drain is at, but we're in a position right now where we just can't justify paying a guy like to Marie Mathis, the money it takes for him to be a real. a rotational player.

Starting point is 00:21:30 It makes the most sense for the Broncos to maybe receive back-end capital, whether it be a seventh or a six-round pick, potentially there. That's something that we could see here for the Broncos. But Broncos Country, our show is going to continue here as we continue to dive deeper at the cornerback position. And we'll dive into how the Broncos and Vance Joseph may plan to deploy the cornerback unit this upcoming season, what those established roles may be early on. We'll break that down much more on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

Starting point is 00:21:56 How Vance Joseph and the Broncos defense planned. to play their cornerbacks this upcoming season will be a strategic move that could help the Broncos when even more games this upcoming season could be advantage for them to evolve and ascend us to one of the league's top defenses in 2025. We'll tell you how that may work here on today's episode of the show. Sarah, I think when we go through our biggest questions at cornerback,

Starting point is 00:22:20 we've kind of asked some of them in terms of who's going to win the starting nickel job between Jada, Berrin, Jek-Baron, Macmillan, things like that. I think really the biggest question at this position here, is with all of these guys here, the solidified four guaranteed spots that we estimate are going to be there, how will the Broncos deploy their cornerbacks this upcoming season?

Starting point is 00:22:41 And what I mean by that is how will they use him, especially with the addition of Jade Barron, a round number one. I think this is a big question that even Broncos country, they're having this conversation with themselves as well in our comments. They're having this conversation as well on social media. This probably is the biggest question right now at this position. Right, because how they deploy their corners

Starting point is 00:23:01 it starts with the discussion of where's Pat Sartan? You know, where is he going to be against a team like the Raiders when you go up against Brock Bowers and you're not just going to always be able to say, well, whoever just happens to be lining up against Brock Bowers is going to be the guy that covers him all game. No, you want your best on best, right? You want to make sure that Pat Sartan is shutting that part of their offense down. And the same goes for, I guess, you know, other situations that they would face that are similar

Starting point is 00:23:27 against the Chiefs. Is he going to be following around Rishi Rice? Is it going to be the same with Ladd-McConkey in the Chargers? I mean, is Pat Sartan going to constantly shadow the number one, or do the Broncos feel so confident in every guy that they now have at corner that they feel like, shoot, wherever these guys line up doesn't matter, because we've got somebody that can match up. If they want to put Bowers on the outside over on Riley Moss's side,

Starting point is 00:23:52 great, he can hang with him. If they want to put him in the slot, Jade Barron, he's got it covered. You know, same with Pat Sartan on the other side. So I think that's going to be interesting to start with is do they slot Pat Sertan on certain guys throughout the course of a game? And we saw how many times did fans call for that last year, Cody? I mean, there was a number of instances. The Jerry Judy won in particular to where it was like, why not just let Pat cover Jerry? And it's not always as easy as that.

Starting point is 00:24:20 But certainly in that game, I mean, they probably should have figured it out at least one or two more times. Yeah, it's because I think they're afraid of, say, are we going to put a rookie in and see if he can. covered the other guys that were in that game. I think so much of it is going to be matchup contingent at this point. Where I do think, Sarah, I think if there is a team that has maybe one really good wide receiver or a true wide receiver one, I think we'll see Pat Sertan travel to that guy, whoever it may be. Now, let's go to a situation like the Broncos playing the Cincinnati Bengals, which is obviously

Starting point is 00:24:52 going to happen Monday night football week for this upcoming season. How is that going to work here for the Broncos? I imagine PS2 versus Jamar Chase at this point is going to be what we see. There might be times where they move into T. Higgins side. It could be situation as well. Like maybe first and 10 second down, it's PS2 versus Jamar Chase. But third down, okay, it's PS2 versus T. Higgins, right? Or I think it could be somewhere along the lines of where the Broncos can look at a situation saying,

Starting point is 00:25:20 okay, the Broncos, we're going to put PS2 on the number one guy no matter what. But where we put Riley Moss or J-Quinn-McMill and. Jade Barron. Maybe it's trait-based matchups, right? Last season, Riley Moss covered a lot of the faster guys that Denver played, right? Trey Tucker of the Las Vegas Raiders. We saw Riley match up with him. The Broncos believe that Riley is their fastest corner on the roster. Pat's Tarrant, I think, is the most well-rounded. Pat's got really good speed. We saw him hit what, 21 miles an hour on his pick six against the Raiders early on in the season. But for Riley, I think they view him as the guy that has the speed to cover some of the faster guys that opposing teams have there.

Starting point is 00:25:58 So maybe you match up speed on speed, Riley Moss versus whoever has the most speed on that roster. And then maybe there's a size thing. Maybe you have a smaller slot or maybe it is, hey, Jada Baron Jekwon McMillan against Ladd-McConkey and you're not moving it when you face the Kansas City Chiefs. Denver's got the option with these four guys if they're healthy to say, hey, this is what we're going to do. This is our game plan. We're going to move this guy here. or we're just going to play straight up.

Starting point is 00:26:23 I mean, that's also another option the Broncos have on the table, but I very much think that this is going to be a move around defense. That's something that when Jada Baron was drafted, Sean Payton told us directly after the draft, we can travel guys now a lot more. So that could be what the Broncos ultimately decide to do. Here's a question for you. Do you expect the Broncos to be very heavily relying on man coverage again this year?

Starting point is 00:26:49 I mean, obviously there's times that call for combo coverages or times where you want to play zone against teams, things like that. But with this team's pass rush ability, do you feel like that lends itself to Vance Joseph kind of having an easy button out there and saying we can play man coverage against anybody and feel confident about it and not feel like we're going to constantly be making mistakes? Do you feel like that's going to be something to watch for the Broncos this year? What are your thoughts on man versus zone or how are they going to attack in terms of the coverage? looks they give teams. I mean, look at what happened last year with Riley on the field. 40% of the time that Riley is on the field, they were Broncos were in man coverage on those snaps, 32% when he was off the field.

Starting point is 00:27:32 And so now you add in a guy like Jada Barron, who can play man at an effective rate, can play zone really well. Part of me thinks that we're going to see a lot more hybrid coverages this upcoming season, right, where on one side of the field you might get zone coverage. And then on the other side of the field, you may get man. It just depends on the formation, the number of threats that you have out there. I mean, the Broncos did some of that last season, but I still think that this is going to be a predominantly man coverage team. And I think with the guys that they've brought in, I think the blitz and the pressure factor that we have seen, I think that's going to increase here from Vance Joseph.

Starting point is 00:28:01 And now I think that they have four guys that they're truly confident in the saying, hey, we can blitz. We got four cover corners that can play man. We got a safety in Brandon Jones that we feel like can play man at an effective rate as well. And then you got a wild card in Talanoa Hufanga, who might just be one of those blitz pieces off the edge or inside that's going to give you an. advantage of maybe getting some more takeaways if you can force a quarterback to throw it into tight windows and you can go make a play on a football with sticky coverage guys. I mean, that's where I think the Broncos defensive game plan is ultimately going to lie here. And look, Broncos country is we wrap up our position preview on the cornerback room here for

Starting point is 00:28:35 Denver. This is one that we're the most excited about because it is so deep here. We talked about the position battles between J-Quah, Macmill, Jada, Barron. Make sure you let us know how you think that's going to go here as you're watching or listening to Locked on Broncos wherever you get your podcast. But with that said, Broncos Country, we appreciate you, as always, for all you every dayers out there, here's what you can expect on tomorrow's episode shows. We continue our training camp preview here. We're going to focus on the running back position.

Starting point is 00:29:01 And while there is an all-out battle royale at this position for Sean Payton and his roster going to camp, we'll break that down on tomorrow's episode, Locked on Broncos.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Training Camp: Cornerback Room LOADED Going Into Camp

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