The Denver Broncos struck a trade for cornerback AJ Bouye, but they’re not done making moves at the position. De’Vante Bausby expects to be back as well.
The Denver Broncos made a big trade for Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback AJ Bouye, who will be expected to be the ‘alpha’ at the cornerback position for the Broncos in the 2020 season.
In addition to Bouye, the Broncos are obviously expecting that 2019 free agent pickup Bryce Callahan can provide stability at the cornerback position, even though his health has been a major question mark.
Behind those two, and even including at least Callahan, the Broncos have a number of questions to answer in the defensive backfield.
With all of the injuries the team had to deal with in 2019, it stands to reason that the Broncos will attempt to put together as deep of a group as they possibly can, and one player who showed well in a limited sample last season was De’Vante Bausby.
Bausby, signed out of the now-defunct AAF, put together some really nice work in preseason play and when he was given a shot in the regular season, he took advantage and was playing quite well before suffering a scary injury against the Los Angeles Chargers. That injury caused him to miss the remainder of the 2019 season.
It was reported that Bausby, who is a restricted free agent this offseason, will not be tendered a contract by the Broncos, but that doesn’t mean the team is not interested in bringing him back.
They’re simply not interested in bringing him back at the price of a one-year restricted free agent tender.
According to Bausby, however, things between he and the Broncos are not finished. In fact, he told the good folks at 850 KOA that he believes talks between his agent and the Broncos are progressing well.
Right now on Broncos Country Tonight, with @AllbrightNFL and @redwardsradio, De'Vante Bausby said he's "ready to be a Bronco" said talks between his agent & Denver are going well & they expect to get something done soon.
— Jeffrey Essary (@JeffreyEssary) March 10, 2020
Is excited about Bouye being on the team. "He's a stud."
Sometimes it’s easy to overreact to a small sample size but Bausby was looking like a potential starting caliber cornerback for the Broncos prior to the injury. Was he perfect? No, but that shouldn’t have been expected, either.
What Bausby showed in his limited sample size was a physical style of play, great reactive quickness to break on the football, and natural ball skills, which he put fully on display in the AAF as well.
Bausby has history with Vic Fangio and what he put on tape this past season with the Broncos certainly warrants being brought back for at least one more year, if not more. The Broncos don’t have to break the bank, and Bausby can provide them with strong depth.