Denver Broncos: Malik Reed, Justin Hollins need to step up
With Bradley Chubb suffering a partially torn ACL, Denver Broncos rookies Justin Hollins and Malik Reed need to step up and into bigger roles.
The Denver Broncos are 0-4, and without playing another game, they took their biggest loss of the year.
Outside linebacker Bradley Chubb, one of the team’s best players and cornerstones of the franchise moving forward, suffered a season-ending ACL injury against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Chubb is such a beast, he played through the injury and didn’t know until he woke up Monday morning he had partially torn the ACL.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio talked about losing a player of Chubb’s caliber on Monday.
"“It’s a huge loss. He’s one of our better players, obviously. He’s a tempo setter, great player, great person, leader and all that. So, it is a loss.”Vic Fangio (via Broncos PR)"
Fangio also stated that replacing Chubb will be ‘more of a committee thing’ than simply a next man up type of thing.
Chubb was an every-down player for the Broncos and in his second year in the league was poised to become one of the game’s star players. The Broncos no longer have the luxury of watching Chubb develop in his second season on the field and will have to wait until 2020 to see him again.
The loss is devastating, but the Broncos have some more young players they will now have an opportunity to get a look at.
They’re not considered a deep team by any stretch, but the Broncos drafted Justin Hollins out of Oregon in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft and signed undrafted free agent Malik Reed, who notched the first sack of his young career on Sunday against the Jaguars.
Reed was all over quarterbacks in the preseason and now will have the chance to prove he can do it with some consistency in the regular season, but being an edge defender in the NFL is a lot more than just getting after the QB.
One thing that Bradley Chubb did so well was set the edge against the run as well as play the pass, and that kind of versatility to his game sets him apart from guys like Reed and Hollins, who are going to get a baptism by fire going up against NFL offensive tackles for extended snaps.
Next. Trading Chris Harris may be the right thing to do. dark
It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Broncos split these guys’ reps almost in half as they try to discover which player is going to be the most consistently productive opposite Von Miller.