ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos added a five-time Pro Bowler to their defensive line during the offseason when they traded for Jurrell Casey.
And, according to the new force on Denver’s defensive line, the Broncos could have another Jurrell Casey in the making.
“He reminds me of my younger self when I could move twitchy like that,” Casey said, talking about second-year lineman Dre’Mont Jones. “He’s got [it].”
The eye-popping comparison from Casey has support to it as well.
Jones, Denver’s 2019 third-round pick, actually displayed his immense talent during his rookie season. In Week 16, as a backup, Jones wreaked havoc against the Detroit Lions, racking up 2.5 sacks, two tackles for a loss and three quarterback hits. Despite being a backup, Jones was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week. Needless to say, that performance earned him the first start of his career the following week.
Casey himself has never had more than two sacks in a game. In fact, the nine-year veteran has only topped two tackles for a loss twice in his career and has only had more than three quarterbacks hits once.
“Man, he’s looking nice out there. He’s fluent. He understands how to play the game. His reaction time is unbelievable,” Casey said about Jones after Thursday’s practice. “I think he’s definitely going to take our game to another level working together. Just having him out there being able to work side-by-side with him has definitely been a joy.”
Another similarity is both Casey and Jones were third-round picks.
When Dalton Risner was asked about Casey, the only other player the left guard brought up unprompted was, you guessed it, Dre’Mont.
“Jurrell is a great player. There have been multiple times where he’s gotten me here in camp. We take switches. Some days I’ll get him, some days he’ll get me,” Risner said, before transitioning to the second-year player without being asked. “Dre’Mont Jones has done an amazing job. He’s an extremely good pass rusher. [Still] trying to figure him out.”
A similarity that is beginning to unfold between Casey and Jones is their unique ability to get after the quarterback and stop the run. A major reason Casey has been one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL over the past seven years is that he’s a force in the run game and he takes down the quarterback often—as displayed by his 45.5 sacks since 2013.
Entering training camp, Vic Fangio declared that for Jones to see more playing time, he’ll need to improve his run defense. Before camp even finished, Fangio, the coach who doesn’t throw compliments around willy-nilly, was highly impressed with Jones’ progression as a player.
“He’s lightyears of where he was last year at this time,” Fangio said of Jones on Aug. 23. “I think he’s had a really good offseason. He’s obviously improved for it.”
Jones gained five pounds of muscle in the offseason and is now up to 286 pounds. Casey still has him beat in the weight department by 19 pounds.
While Jones could very well start the season as Casey and Shelby Harris’ backup, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Jones could leapfrog Harris and start alongside the man who reminds him of himself.
