ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For the first time since the Josh McDaniels era, the Denver Broncos don’t have Von Miller on their roster during OTAs.
But despite Miller’s absence, the “wave of pass rushers” George Paton has assembled in Denver are resembling traits the great No. 58 displayed in the Mile High City for over a decade.
While, of course, Bradley Chubb, Randy Gregory, Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Malik Reed and Baron Browning aren’t Von Miller, their collective talents look to replicate the production from the franchise’s all-time leading sack artist after trading him away last year.
On Monday, Chubb took the role of wrecking practice for Denver’s offense.
“My plan is to go out here everyday and cause as much havoc as I can and let it carry over into Sundays,” Chubb stated after practice.
During Miller’s decade in Denver, especially once Peyton Manning retired, it became an every-year occurrence that Von would ruin practice by getting to the quarterback too quickly and too often.
On Monday, Chubb was in the pocket numerous times as he flew by the tackles. In a game setting, Chubb would have had multiple sacks, if not a strip-sack or two. But in practice, the golden rule, especially with Russell Wilson at QB, is do not touch the quarterback. Instead, after blowing past the tackles, Chubb celebrated with a sack dance. Chubb was celebrating a lot on Monday.
“He’s done a really good job. He’s starting to feel it a little bit in both his pass rush and his ability to stop the run,” Hackett said about Chubb after practice, even pointing to the “couple of good plays” he had in practice. “He’s a force. When he knows what he’s doing, I mean he’s definitely somebody that we would have to account for.”
For the first time in years, Chubb has been healthy for the entirety of the offseason workout program. Instead of focusing on rehab as in years past, No. 55 is focused on figuring out “what makes me, me.”
With only two weeks remaining in the offseason program, Chubb believes he’s found the answer to that.
“I mean my aggression, my anger—the anger I play with—I channel it toward playing football and not toward the negative stuff like fights,” Chubb said. “I try and channel it toward playing and my hands and being violent with my feet, being violent with my hands, whatever I can do, flipping my hips, that’s what I channel all of that into and I feel like it’s working out for me.”
Chubb’s production shouldn’t be a surprise. And Denver’s going to be counting on that to translate to the regular season when September rolls around.
In his first year in the league, Chubb flirted with the NFL rookie sack record. While he fell short of the record, he still racked up 12 sacks. Since, he’s played in 25 games and missed 24 due to injury, only totaling 8.5 sacks over the past three seasons.
To help with Denver’s depth for this year, and prepare for the future at the position, Paton and the Broncos used their first pick in the 2022 NFL Draft on outside linebacker Nik Bonitto and moved Baron Browning from inside linebacker to outside backer.
“The bend is crazy when it comes to Baron, man. Just the natural skillset he has for the position—it’s amazing,” Chubb said about Browning, sending flashbacks to Miller’s low bend. “You’ll see him go out there and he just throws his shoulder down. To him, it feels like he’s doing that. But on film, it looks like the craziest thing ever.”
Despite an impressive rookie season at inside backer, Browning has spent the entire offseason working on the outside. In college at Ohio State, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound backer played both inside and outside.
Early indications would point to his outside linebacker skills translating to the next level.
“He’s coming over to the house asking me what he sees from his play so I’m just trying to be there for him like Von and those guys were for me when I first moved to the position,” Chubb added. “It’s been great to see all of the natural things that he has already. And once he starts adding those small little details, it’s going be to over with.”
Speaking of Miller, over the weekend Browning attended Von’s Pass Rush Summit in Las Vegas to continue to work on his transition to the outside. An aspect of Von’s game that could have been discussed at the summit was jumping the snap.
According to Chubb, Denver’s rookie pass rusher already has those impressive instincts.
“Ever since he’s been out on this field, it’s been crazy to see. He’s kind of like in that Baron range when it comes to that natural bend. His get off is crazy,” Chubb said about Bonitto. “He’s such a finesse guy—he moves around the tackles and they don’t even know he went past them and stuff like that. It’s been fun to watch him grow. I’m just trying to teach him all of the little things that I feel like help me out… He’s already a good player.”
At Oklahoma, Bonitto displayed his “crazy” get off over and over again, propelling his body over the line of scrimmage almost at the exact same time the center snapped the ball.
A similar get off was one of the many reasons Von will be a future Hall of Famer.
Bonitto still has ways to go to develop to be an all-around player in the NFL, but he enters the league with a special ability to get after the passer.
For the first time since 2010, the Broncos are without Von Miller heading into the summer months. However, the wave of pass rushers Paton has assembled are showing traits, flashes and promise to take over in the post-Miller era.
