Miles
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- Mar 18, 2019
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In the early days of camp, the Broncos' offensive rookies have garnered most of the media attention.
That's somewhat understandable, as first-round pick Jerry Jeudy continues to impress on a daily basis, KJ Hamler shows off impressive speed and Lloyd Cushenberry III pushes for a starting role.
On the defensive side, though, at least one rookie has caught Head Coach Vic Fangio's eye. Inside linebacker Justin Strnad, whom the Broncos selected in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, has shown plenty of potential in the early days of training camp.
"I've liked Justin so far," Fangio said Wednesday. "He's shown some ability … in the pass defense area — [and in] the run game, we haven't had a lot of shots [at] it yet. The inside linebacker … [is] a position that will suffer more than others with the lack of training camp time and the lack of preseason games. He's got a lot of work [to do]. We have to speed up the process with him. Overall, I think he's doing well. I like what I see.
"A lot of that is based upon just what I see which enables me to predict. You might not be seeing it on tape or you guys watching in practice live, but I like certain things that indicate to me that he'll be able to do it eventually."
At 6-foot-3, 238 pounds, Strnad has good size at the position and may be athletic enough to help the Broncos cover tight ends.
"He's looking clean," starting linebacker Alexander Johnson said. "Obviously, he's running with the receivers, getting good drops, picking up the defense really fast. He's looking really good. Obviously, it's just [five] practices in, so nobody's going to be perfect. I'm not perfect. He's not perfect, but so far he's doing really well and looking really good. I'm glad we got him as a linebacker."
The Wake Forest product was an honorable mention All-ACC player in 2018 as he posted 105 total tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one forced fumbles and five passes defensed. He suffered a torn bicep in the middle of his senior season, but still earned another set of honorable mention All-ACC honors with 69 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, an interception and four pass breakups in seven games.
THE REASON WHY HE PLAYS
After suffering three torn ACLs and rehabbing for much of the last three years, tight end Jake Butt has had moments where he's considered walking away from the game he loves.
"There were a lot of days that I wanted to quit," Jake Butt said. "There were a lot of days that I was really down on myself, questioning myself, questioning why I'm even doing this kind of thing. For me, it's my support group, my teammates, my friends and maybe just a little bit of craziness that I've had implanted in me from my parents and my family growing up. You can't quit and just show up tomorrow. It might not be the best day and the path might not be linear. You're going to have some down days, but eventually you're going to go back up. I'm really happy I stuck with it because I do feel really, really good out there. I feel like I can still play in this league and contribute. I can even get much better than what I'm playing right now. That's a lesson I definitely learned through this and everybody can learn [from it]. Bad days are going to come and tough days are going to come, but you can't quit. You just have to keep showing up. [Strength and Conditioning Coach Loren] Landow says, 'Chop wood and carry water.' It's a book he gave to us and It's been my mindset through this whole thing. Just the little things you have to do on a daily basis to get you back to where you want to go."
Now healthy, Butt is competing for a roster spot in a crowded tight end room. He is playing without a brace and has made several big catches as he tries to appear in a regular-season game for the first time since 2018.