Denver Broncos: Calais Campbell could be great free agent fit
The Denver Broncos, in need of some help along the defensive line, could look to veteran Calais Campbell, a Denver native, in the offseason…
The Denver Broncos will be a very interesting team to monitor this offseason, and one area that will see somewhat of a mini overhaul is the defensive line.
The Broncos lost Malik Jackson this past year in free agency, and they will reap the ‘benefit’ of that by hauling in one of the highest compensatory draft picks in the third round. That being said, the Broncos simply couldn’t replace Jackson’s on-field presence this past year with a combination of Jared Crick, Billy Winn, and Adam Gotsis as projected starter Vance Walker hurt his knee in training camp and didn’t contribute all season.
With the loss of two premiere run defenders, the Broncos were vulnerable on the defensive front, and surrendered some big games by opposing teams on the ground.
That’s certainly not ideal, considering the Broncos struggled to score points all season, and teams didn’t have to throw on them a whole heck of a lot to beat them.
This is why I am proposing defensive end Calais Campbell, a 30-year old free agent of the Arizona Cardinals, as a potential solution for the Broncos in the offseason.
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Campbell has been playing some of the best football of his career in 2016, and is set to hit the open market with some of Arizona’s other top players also hitting free agency. It’s not a certainty that Campbell will leave Arizona, but there are reasons to connect him to Denver, one of which (and not the least of which) is the fact that he grew up in Denver, played his high school ball there, and would be returning to a home crowd every week.
The Broncos have some needs elsewhere on the roster, but this move makes too much sense not to happen. Adding Campbell would fortify the Broncos’ defensive line opposite Derek Wolfe, and would help free things up for their pass rushing duo of Von Miller and Shane Ray.
That was an underrated aspect of the pocket pushing Malik Jackson’s game. Teams had to respect him as a rusher, and therefore, options opened up for DeMarcus Ware and Miller and whoever else was rushing behind him.
Campbell is the type of high quality, high character veteran that could be an asset in the locker room as well.
This is a move I would love to see, and I hope the Broncos agree.