You’re a starter and key contributor on a Super Bowl champion defense, you just played arguably the best season of your career, you’re heading into a contract year, hoping to prove yourself worthy of a long-term deal and what does your team do? Adds two players at your position group.
In any job, it would be scary to see your company add younger, cheaper options that are willing to do the same job as you and it would be easy to be offended by the message that sends to you. It would be easy to view those new guys as competition and do everything you can to make sure your employer see’s that you are still the better option. It would certainly be easy to refrain from helping those young guys to get better, potentially giving them a better chance to take your job.
That’s not the case for Denver Broncos safety Darian Stewart. In fact, he’s quite the opposite.
“I think we needed the depth,” he said of the team’s decision to add safeties Justin Simmons and Will Parks in the NFL Draft.
“That’s what we lacked last year. Having [Simmons] and [Parks] in, they don’t say too much. They just come in and work. I’ve just been working out with them and stuff, but they’re going to be helpful for us.”
On top of working out with the newbies, Stewart wants to make it very clear that he and the other Broncos veterans in the secondary want nothing but the best for their new teammates.
“We’re available for them. We’re willing to help them,” he told. “That’s the key. I had vets when I came in that helped along the way. It’s only right that we give that same knowledge to them.”
While it’s not very surprising considering the championship-level locker room the Broncos have, it’s important news for the Orange & Blue. With the loss of depth pieces David Bruton and Omar Bolden, Denver is going to need contributions from the youngins and Stewart is confident they’ll get it.
“I think it’s going to be great,” he said of the transition for the rookies. “Our defense is straight-forward. It’s not too difficult. I think with help from us along with our coaching staff, I think they’ll pick up on it pretty quick.”
And while the sample size is small, the sixth-year vet likes what he see’s early.
“Justin, he’s long. He can play the middle-field. I think he can come down and cover man-to-man,” Stewart said. “Will, I think he moves pretty good, too, and he has great ball skills.”
It’s stuff like this in the locker room that helps the Broncos to be a cut above the rest in the NFL. It seems the business side of things isn’t always the first thing on their minds. This team wants to take care of business on the field and knows that if they do that, the business will take care of itself.
