Behind the scenes of Allen Barbre's "rollercoaster" ride to Denver

ENGLEWOOD – “It’s been kind of a rollercoaster,” said new Broncos offensive lineman Allen Barbre with an endearing Missouri drawl, his exhausted eyes telling a different story than his upbeat tone.

On Wednesday, Barbre woke up still a member of the Philidelphia Eagles, though a bit unsure about his standing with the team. News had come out on Tuesday—before he even reported to camp—that second-year pro Isaac Seumalo would be Philidelphia’s starting left guard, the position he had occupied for multiple seasons.

Around 11 am, Barbre, got news that he was being cut. He began to shift his plans for the coming days and maybe months, but not even three hours later, the 11-year veteran found out that he had not been cut and, in fact, he had been traded to the Broncos.

Barbre got his things together, got on the earliest flight he could, landed in Denver around 2 am, got a quick nap, woke up at 5:45, headed into the Broncos facility, took and passed a physical, got his orange practice jersey on and hit the field for a 9:30 practice that lasted until just after 11.

Then he had to talk to me.

“It’s been a long day,” he said with a laugh that acknowledged his understatement.

Even after as wild a 24-hour ride as one can imagine, though, Barbre was thinking about the others it had effected.

“It’s hard on them, you know?” He said, speaking of his family. “My oldest boy thought I was going to be around because he realized I wasn’t going to Philly, so he thought I was gonna be there and hang out a bit more. When it came time to leave it kind of hit him.”

“I had to do it, though,” he said, almost talking to his son for a second. “I had to get here and get to work.”

Just over 12 hours after saying his goodbyes, the work had begun. Serious work, because Allen Barbre is not just a camp body. The 6-foot-4, 330-pounder was ranked 16th overall in terms of offensive guards on Pro Football Focus last season. For comparison, prized offseason acquisition Ronald Leary ranked 21st.

Seconds after his first practice, head coach Vance Joseph was adamant that the former Eagle was “absolutely” a candidate to start for the team.

“My goal right now is to learn the offense, so I can play confidently, play at a confident level and play fast. Once that happens then we’ll see what happens. I can’t ask them or expect them to put me into a position to p—”

Suddenly, our conversation is interrupted by some guy named John.

“Welcome, man,” he said. “Really happy to have you.”

Barbre greeted the man graciously before politely returning to our interview.

“I can’t ask them to put me into a position to play if I’m not confident enough to go out there and perform.”

After finishing the thought, though, he was understandably brought back to that interaction.

“I’ve grown up always watching the team be successful, and I watched Mr. [John] Elway,” he said, his eyes suddenly rejuvenated. “It’s a neat thing to play for an organization like this, and I’m excited about it.”

“It’s kinda like meeting Favre for the first time, too, when I was a rookie,” he added, now with the smile of one of those rookies on their first day. “I was running scout team across from Favre. Elway is just one of those guys that you have a lot of respect for.”

Despite Elway continuing to stand just a few feet away, Barbre (pronounced Bar-ber, as he confirmed) got back to the subject matter, getting on the field for his new team, a team in which he only knows on player—A.J. Derby—through a mutual friend. He acknowledged that while getting cut would have freed him to play wherever he wanted, he was grateful that the guy a few feet away wanted him enough to make a trade instead.

And Denver doesn’t seem so bad, anyway.

“Everybody has been great. Everybody has been welcoming, and the fans seem great. A lot of support out here, seems like a great place to play football… I’m here to contribute to the team, that’s what they brought me here to do. Like I said, my goal is to learn the offense and then I can go out and play with confidence and hopefully make the team better.”

As soon as our conversation wrapped, Barbre shook my hand and immediately hopped a few feet over to that guy who had interrupted us a few minutes earlier.

“Hey, thank you, man,” he said as genuinely as one can. “Thank you.”