The Lead
On a strong Denver defense, Josey Jewell and Alex Singleton played a crucial role.
The pair didn’t start together until Week 10 against the Titans, but they proceeded to play alongside each other for the final nine weeks of the season.
In Jewell and Singleton, the Broncos had a pair of sure tacklers that combined for 291 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits, two interceptions, seven passes defensed and three forced fumbles.
The Broncos brought back Singleton in free agency, and the two players now have the benefit of a complete offseason together.
“It’ll be fun this year,” Jewell said Friday. “I’m excited to play beside him again and actually get some reps in the preseason, get some reps in the OTAs with him and a guy that I’m going to play with.”
Jewell said the chemistry the two have built has developed to the point where they’re able to make non-verbal checks ahead of the play.
“It’s been good so far,” Jewell said. “We can do a wink and a nod and he knows when to go and I know when to switch it. It’s been fun to be able to understand each other’s brains and when we’re going to do things.”
In addition to Jewell and Singleton, the Broncos have experienced reserve players in Jonas Griffith and Justin Strnad. Denver also drafted Drew Sanders early in the third round, and the Arkansas product profiles as a pressure player in Denver’s defense.
“I think we’ve got a lot of great guys, whether it be Jonas, Drew and Justin,” Jewell said. “I think those guys are really good, and you never know what will happen with other linebackers, too, that could possibly get in there, depending on how this camp goes next week and also camp in the fall. We’ll see how it goes, but right now there’s a good amount of depth back there with guys I would trust.”