Standouts: Defense
Bradley Chubb is a menace out there.
Year two for him is going to prove a lot of doubters (haters?) wrong. This guy got an 80 overall in Madden 20 and even just watching one practice, you can see the progression in this guy’s game.
There was one play he burst around the edge and would have had a strip sack in a game, but obviously these guys can’t touch the quarterbacks. He was dropping into coverage, sprinting out wide and setting the edge against the run.
Without pads, it’s hard to tell which guys in the trenches are playing the best, but Chubb has taken a step, I’m telling you that much.
Von Miller is also a player who can excel with or without pads. He doesn’t need to touch any offensive lineman to win in pass rush situations, we know this. There was a time or two where he just blew by Ja’Wuan James for a sack.
Speaking of sacks, there were quite a few times where the coverage was so good that Joe Flacco just had to heave the ball up to try and not waste many reps. One of those times he didn’t get anything behind the ball and it was picked off by Isaac Yiadom deep downfield, the first interception of training camp.
Yiadom had a good day all-around from what I observed. Every time I paid attention to Yiadom he was in position and he had the INT as well as a nice pass breakup at the sideline. Perhaps the change to number 26 gave him the jumpstart he needed. The coaching staff’s confidence in him speaks volumes to his development. The fact that he’s the fifth defensive back and not Will Parks is very interesting. We’ll see if that keeps up through camp.
I paid close attention to Su’a Cravens as there is a lot of chatter among Broncos fans that he could be on the chopping block. I’m not so sure about it. The Broncos put a lot of faith in him, and unless someone substantially out-plays him, I think he will get a shot to prove himself with this coaching staff.
He was running with the second unit and playing almost exclusively free safety. On one play, he was reading the left side of the field when a receiver (Fred Brown) broke open over the middle. Cravens read the eyes of the QB and changed course, sprinting over the Brown. As the ball met Brown’s hands, Cravens held up, but he would have absolutely lit him up if contact were allowed in this practice.