It’s time for the Broncos to call up a weapon from the practice squad
The Denver Broncos have starting linebacker Kenny Young in concussion protocol this week. It’s time for them to make the call on a potential key player.
Denver Broncos general manager George Paton has done a pretty tremendous job in his first year on the job as the top decision-maker for an NFL team, but he’s proving that he’s anything but a rookie when it comes to building a roster.
One area in particular that Paton has emphasized throughout this season at various stages and for a variety of reasons? The linebacker position.
Paton and the scouting/pro personnel department have been very active when it comes to finding players to fit Vic Fangio’s defense, and with four games remaining in the 2021 season, their intentionality towards having depth at that group is paying huge dividends.
The Broncos could unleash a secret weapon at linebacker in Week 15
The season-opening starters for the Denver Broncos at the linebacker position were Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson. Both of them went down early on with pectoral injuries that would ultimately cost them the remainder of the 2021 campaign.
Justin Strnad stepped in and the Broncos brought in Micah Kiser off of the Rams’ practice squad to fortify the position. The team traded for special teams ace and linebacker Jonas Griffith from the San Francisco 49ers before the start of the regular season.
As injuries piled up and it was clear that Justin Strnad needed more time before being thrust into a prominent role, the Broncos traded for Rams starting linebacker Kenny Young.
Back in the Spring, they drafted Baron Browning out of Ohio State.
After all of those moves, you would think they’d be able to just roll with what they had but the NFL is a unique beast, and they are all the way down to just Baron Browning and Jonas Griffith this coming week against the Bengals with Micah Kiser making his way off of injured reserve.
It’s time for reinforcements off of the practice squad.
In addition to all of those aforementioned moves the Broncos made, the team made one additional savvy move to get a veteran onto the practice squad, utilizing one of the league’s exceptions for up to six veteran players on the practice team.
The Broncos added former big-money free agent Avery Williamson, who is actually on his second stint with the team after getting picked up briefly by the Tennessee Titans.
Williamson has been on the practice squad for the last few weeks, and the team has seemingly been keeping him there for just the right time.
Now would be that time.
With Kenny Young going through concussion protocol and the Broncos playing essentially a weekly playoff game at this point, it’s going to be all hands on deck.
The team’s run defense has been porous in recent weeks, and they can’t afford to get gashed on the ground against Joe Mixon, Samaje Perine, and the Bengals.
Williamson could certainly help in that regard.
He’s made over 600 career tackles and 29 tackles for loss. Although Jonas Griffith played well in his first real appearance for the Broncos at linebacker, Williamson will need to be called upon for some much-needed depth going against the Bengals.