Denver Broncos: Predicting the defensive line group for 2020

Predicting the Denver Broncos defensive line group for 2020.

What will the Denver Broncos‘ defensive line group look like in the 2020 season?

For the first time since 2011, it won’t feature Derek Wolfe, who left in free agency this offseason for the Super Bowl contending Baltimore Ravens.

The loss of Derek Wolfe was a tough blow for many Denver Broncos fans as Wolfe has been a source of toughness, brutal honesty, leadership, and strong play both as a run defender and pass rusher for years.

The Broncos also let go of another former second-round defensive lineman Adam Gotsis, who is still recovering from an injury he suffered last season.

With both Wolfe and Shelby Harris unrestricted free agents as well as Mike Purcell a restricted free agent, it appeared as though the Broncos would have to replace three starters on the defensive line from a season ago.

If it had to happen, this year’s free agent class was certainly the one to do it.

Early on in free agency, the Broncos came this close to signing Houston Texans free agent DJ Reader, who ended up taking more money to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals instead.

After losing out on Reader, the options for the Broncos in free agency had dwindled considerably.

The team acted quickly, making a trade for veteran Jurrell Casey, a five-time Pro Bowler of the Tennessee Titans.

Not long after that, the Broncos brought back Purcell on his restricted free agent tender and made perhaps the best bargain signing in all of free agency, re-signing Shelby Harris to a one-year, $3 million deal.

There were some outside of Denver projecting Harris would sign for north of $10 million per season.

Along with the moves made in free agency, the Broncos took to the 2020 NFL Draft and added pass-rushing lineman McTelvin Agim from Arkansas to the rotation.

Thankfully, the defensive line room is a bit crowded in Denver. There are players who have proven themselves plenty and a number of guys with upside to contribute as starters. Which players make up this unit, and who is cracking the rotation in 2020?

Let’s dive in.

Jurrell Casey

The Denver Broncos got Jurrell Casey for a seventh-round pick.

It doesn’t get old saying it.

Do the Titans know something we don’t, or did they really just need the cap space that bad? We’re going with the latter and believing that Casey still has plenty of good football in him.

Casey has been a model of durability throughout his NFL career, missing just five games since he came into the league in 2011, the same year Von Miller entered the league.

Since 2013, Casey has been one of the premier pass-rushing defensive linemen in the NFL, racking up:

• 45.5 sacks
• 71 tackles for loss
• 102 quarterback hits

Casey is coming off of another very good season with the Titans in which he missed two regular season games but wound up playing 17 anyway thanks to the Titans’ deep run in the postseason.

He finished all 17 games last season with 7.5 sacks and 13 quarterback hits along with 21 regular season pressures.

Imagining Jurrell Casey on the same field as Von Miller and Bradley Chubb in an actual NFL game? That’s going to give opposing offensive coordinators some sleepless nights.

Casey is a legitimate star in the NFL at his position, which as of last season was all over the place. He racked up sacks as a nose tackle and every position on out to outside linebacker for the Titans last season.

He’s smart, physical, fast, aggressive, tough, and well-rounded.

Although the loss of Derek Wolfe stings from a fan’s perspective, the onboarding of Jurrell Casey is an upgrade for the Broncos.

Shelby Harris

How much would you argue with me if I said that since 2017, Shelby Harris has made the biggest plays of any Denver Broncos defensive lineman?

Harris was a pure lottery ticket ahead of the 2017 offseason, Vance Joseph’s first as the head coach of the Broncos.

He was signed as a reserve/futures contract player and had to scratch and claw for a roster spot, which he did. His play in camp and at practice was so good, in fact, that the Broncos had no choice but to put Harris into their already strong rotation in 2017.

He made an immediate impact.

The blocked FG to beat the Chargers (2017)

The interception to seal a win vs. the Steelers

The batted pass to seal a win vs. Oakland

There are plenty of other plays as well, and incidentally none of those particular plays are any of Harris’ 13 sacks or 22 quarterback hits since he became a significant contributor for the Broncos.

He brings energy on the defensive line and over the past two seasons, he’s become one of the best in the NFL at batting passes at the line of scrimmage. Including the batted pass to end the game against Oakland on a two-point conversion, Harris had 10 batted passes in 2019, most in the league for a defensive lineman.

Although those aren’t tackles for loss or sacks, think about how many big plays are prevented by Harris knocking balls down at the line of scrimmage.

It’s great for the Broncos to have him back for 2020, especially at such a discounted price.

Mike Purcell

The Broncos took a flier on Purcell last offseason after he showed well in the now-defunct AAF (Alliance of American Football).

He went from a guy who couldn’t crack a 90-man roster in the NFL to a starter on Vic Fangio’s defense in Denver, which wound up among the best in the NFL in 2019.

The success of Denver’s defense in 2019 is thanks largely to the contributions of Purcell, who provided some much-needed run defense for Denver after a struggle through the first four games of the season.

Purcell’s work against the run in 2019 was good enough that the Broncos put a second-round restricted free agent tender on him. They don’t just hand those out to guys.

For the money and the impact he made last season without really showing up a ton in the stat sheet, Purcell has got to be one of the best bargains right now on the Broncos’ roster.

As a starter but part-time player, Purcell racked up a career-high 48 tackles last season for Denver with eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

Not bad for not having played NFL ball since 2016.

Dre’Mont Jones

The Denver Broncos have very high hopes for Dre’Mont Jones going forward after his 2019 rookie campaign.

In addition to picking off a Philip Rivers pass, Dre’Mont Jones won AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Detroit Lions in week 16.

Jones had 3.5 sacks, an interception, a couple of batted passes, a blocked field goal, and three tackles for loss in his rookie season.

He didn’t see a ton of snaps his rookie year, but Jones is expected to be a much more integral part of the Broncos’ defensive line this season and should be considered a breakout candidate.

DeMarcus Walker

The start of DeMarcus Walker’s career with the Denver Broncos has really proven to be detrimental to the rest of it.

In his rookie season back in 2017, the Broncos attempted to solve injury problems at outside linebacker by taking a natural interior defensive lineman in Walker and making him an outside linebacker.

That’s part of the reason Walker wears no. 57.

By the time the Broncos realized the error of their ways, Walker was in Vance Joseph’s doghouse for not playing special teams, even though he excelled in college at blocking kicks and participating in that phase.

Although you could mount up excuses for any player who hasn’t had the type of success their draft status indicates they should (Walker was a 2nd-round pick), the reality is Walker is at a crossroads in Denver.

You are going to want to see Cody Roark’s breakdown on tape of DeMarcus Walker from a season ago.

Walker played just 220 snaps this past season (a career-high, unfortunately) but racked up four sacks and five quarterback hits along with six pressures.

This guy is not as bad of a player as some Broncos fans make him out to be. Some interior defensive linemen play 500 or more snaps and don’t reach four sacks in a season.

Walker’s ability to finish has always been notable, but his inability to get consistent playing time is something worth the media bringing up with coach Fangio at some point when the team re-convenes.

McTelvin Agim

The Denver Broncos’ newest top 100 pick on the defensive line is 2020 third-round pick McTelvin Agim, the third of three third-round picks the Broncos held in the 2020 NFL Draft.

McTelvin Agim is a former pure defensive end who put on weight over the course of his college career and morphed into a jack-of-all-trades on the Arkansas defensive front.

Agim racked up 31 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, six forced fumbles, and 140 total tackles in his time with the Razorbacks, and he brings excellent speed and quickness to the Denver defensive front.

Although Agim has plenty to learn about playing on the defensive line, he’s got the type of raw talent to see early playing time in his NFL career.

Agim’s ability to get to the quarterback is his most notable trait right now, but he has the size and skillset to develop quickly into a well-rounded player on the defensive line.

The rest / The rotation

Christian Covington

The Broncos signed the free agent Covington after the 2020 NFL Draft, and it’s obviously safe to say this front office took a liking to the Houston Texans’ defensive line tape from a couple of years ago.

They not only signed Covington but also tried to sign DJ Reader and they brought in Joel Heath at the end of the 2019 season as well.

Covington played 481 snaps for the Cowboys’ defense in 2019 and also contributed almost 18 percent of their special teams snaps.

He’s a versatile player who should not be counted out to make this Broncos roster.

Kyle Peko

The Broncos don’t really have many ‘true’ nose tackles on the roster, but Peko is one of them.

He’s not as big as Mike Purcell, but Peko is a wide body on the interior defensive line who has been on again off again with the Broncos, Bills, and Colts since 2017.

He was signed late last season when injuries started mounting for the Broncos.

Jonathan Harris

The Broncos plucked Harris away from the Chicago Bears during the 2019 season but we never got to see much of him.

The former Lindenwood star comes highly recommended from the school’s head coach Jed Stugart as both a person and player, and the Broncos clearly liked what they had seen from them in scouting before the draft.

Joel Heath

How often do you see the Broncos put in a waiver claim on a player after the regular season who can’t ever actually be on your roster?

The Broncos were basically awarded Heath’s rights after the 2019 season and they held his restricted free agent status in the 2020 offseason, but instead of slapping him wth a tender, they negotiated a one-year contract to bring him aboard the 2020 group.

He’s got some NFL starts and decent tape under his belt already.

The Rotation

I absolutely love the Broncos’ defensive line group. What’s not to like?

There’s a strong mix of veterans and youth and the players the Broncos have assembled appear poised for one of the best single position group battles of any on the roster in 2020.

This unit will be must-watch no matter if we’re talking about the first quarter or fourth quarter of a preseason game because every guy can make plays and you could make the case for every single one of these guys to make the final roster in 2020.

Ultimately, the 2020 rotation will depend upon how much Fangio wants to rotate guys to keep them fresh, but we could see something like this:

• Jurrell Casey: 600 snaps
• Shelby Harris: 600 snaps
• Mike Purcell: 400 snaps
• Dre’Mont Jones: 400 snaps
• DeMarcus Walker: 300 snaps
• McTelvin Agim: 150 snaps

If everyone stays healthy, this is a realistic potential snap division among the Broncos’ projected top 6 players.

The outside factors at play here are guys who play their way onto the roster and earn snaps, which lessens the load for each of these guys but could ultimately make the Broncos that much more dangerous.