Josey Jewell, LB
Besides Garett Bolles, Josey Jewell is the most surprising breakout player on the Denver Broncos’ roster in 2020.
Jewell was injured in 2019 and had been replaced in the starting lineup by the time he was back healthy by Alexander Johnson.
In the 2020 offseason, Todd Davis was injured and Jewell took his place next to Johnson in the lineup, and he hasn’t looked back.
Jewell’s emergence allowed the Broncos to part ways with Davis and Jewell has played the best football of his NFL career to this point.
His athletic limitations still pop up as an issue from time to time, but Jewell has made more ‘splash’ plays in 2020 than either 2018 or 2019 and Vic Fangio recently heaped a ton of praise on the former fourth-round pick out of Iowa.
Jewell has played 93 percent of the snaps so far in 2020 and has racked up 48 total tackles, two sacks, three QB hits, two tackles for loss, and a pass breakup.
Has he played well enough for the Broncos to go into 2021 without spending one of their top two picks on the linebacker position? We’ll have to wait on that one, but the early signs are very encouraging.