Denver Broncos safety Caden Sterns having a quiet 2022 offseason

The Denver Broncos have a deep group of safeties in 2022 which has led to a rather quiet offseason for second-year player Caden Sterns.

It’s been a whale of an offseason for the Denver Broncos in 2022, so it should come as no surprise that a few players have flown under the radar.

One player that hasn’t gotten talked about a lot is second-year safety Caden Sterns.

Perhaps one of the reasons Sterns isn’t being talked about a ton? Not even he knows what his role will be in 2022.

Another reason for the relative silence regarding Sterns in 2022 is the fact that in April, the Denver Broncos re-signed veteran defensive back Kareem Jackson, who will presumably be the full-time starter at the other safety position opposite Justin Simmons.

That move doesn’t exactly thrust Sterns into a more prominent role, at least from the outside looking in, so what more can we talk about except reminisce over his extremely efficient rookie season?

Can Caden Sterns’ role grow for the Denver Broncos in 2022?

Last season, we saw Caden Sterns make plays like this…

And this…

Sterns became a weapon for Vic Fangio’s defense, someone whose role increased as the year went along. He finished the 2021 season with 28 total tackles, two QB hits, two sacks, five passes broken up, and two interceptions.

It was an impressive statistical output for a player who was basically just making brief appearances early on in the season.

Sterns is a ridiculously gifted athlete. We all talked over the last year a lot about his high “RAS” (relative athletic score) which included a blazing 40-yard dash time and a ridiculous 42-inch vertical jump.

With his combination of athleticism and ball skills, it seemed only a matter of time before Sterns would be in the starting lineup after his rookie season, and when the Broncos waited until April to sign Kareem Jackson, there was a period of time there where it seemed he may be thrust into the starting lineup.

Now, questions abound for year two with Caden Sterns in Denver.

One huge help for him? The presence of holdover defensive backs coach Christian Parker on this new staff.

It’s always good to have an advocate on the coaching staff. It’s borderline critical for a young player like Sterns, vying for more playing time, to have a position coach that knows his skill set very well and has invested personally in his development.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with letting players develop at a slower pace. As much as you’d love to see draft picks get into the starting lineup as quickly as possible, there’s no doubt that learning from players like Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson will be valuable for Caden Sterns.

Entering his second year, hopefully, we will see more of Sterns being utilized like he was a year ago and then some. The Broncos could put Sterns as a deep safety along with Justin Simmons and have Kareem Jackson play the role Sterns was playing last season in the dime package.

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The defensive backfield in Denver is extremely deep, so the team is going to have options. We’ll have to wait and see, however, what options they’ve concocted for the talented young safety out of Texas.