Denver Broncos: How often is Bryce Callahan in the slot?

The Denver Broncos picked up Bryce Callahan for his familiarity with Vic Fangio and Ed Donatell’s defense. How often does he play in the slot?

The Denver Broncos didn’t make many moves this offseason to acquire players who were already ‘familiar’ with Vic Fangio’s defense this offseason, though the opportunity was certainly there to do so.

The Broncos could have brought in safety Adrian Amos, backup edge Aaron Lynch, and slot corner Bryce Callahan as primary free agent targets, but they opted only to bring in Callahan.

Callahan is sort of the Chicago Bears’ version of Chris Harris Jr., but to a bit lesser extent.

Harris has become one of the best cornerbacks in all of football and Callahan may certainly be on his way, but Harris is on a completely different level.

Still, not many players in the NFL play the slot as well as Harris has, and Callahan is one of them.

The Broncos put a pretty clear plan of action in place by signing Callahan to a three-year contract — he’s going to play the slot the majority of the time and that will allow Harris to move to the outside where he can either shut down one side of the field or follow around the opposing team’s best receiver.

Why are we so certain Callahan is going to play primarily slot for the Broncos? He came to the Broncos because he has familiarity with head coach Vic Fangio and Ed Donatell. They have been his coaches since he came into the league out of Rice in 2015.

What good is that familiarity if he’s not playing in the spot he’s so good at?

Over the course of Callahan’s four years in Chicago, he played 1,633 of his 2002 defensive snaps (81.6 percent) in the slot. Over the past two seasons, the best of Callahan’s career, he played 1,088 of 1,188 snaps (91.6 percent) in the slot.

The thought behind signing Callahan was clear even before the Broncos did it.

Sign Callahan to play the slot, move Harris to the outside.

The Broncos have not been able to do this because no one has been capable of playing the middle of the field as well as Harris. Harris himself has stated as much. He’s also stated a preference for playing outside versus the slot because he feels he will have to play with his back to the quarterback a lot less.

Now, at least for this year, Callahan can do that dirty work inside and Harris can be an asset for the Broncos as an outside player, something he hasn’t really been able to do all that much.

Harris hasn’t been so strictly limited to slot snaps like Callahan since he was a rookie in 2011. The Bears almost exclusively featured Callahan in that role.

Although there has been some talk of Callahan floating to outside corner, I think we’re going to see him play the role he plays best in Denver.