ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — If all goes according to plan, Josey Jewell will go 358 days without tackling somebody.
The Broncos’ linebacker tore his pec in Week 2 of the 2021 season and didn’t see the field again. Now, new head coach Nathaniel Hackett is holding starters out of preseason games. Tackling to the ground is strictly prohibited in practice. The next time Jewell makes a real tackle will be on Monday Night Football in about three weeks.
“Since we’re not tackling, making sure we’re coming inside-out on the ball and making sure we’re taking a banana path,” Jewell said. “If you do it smart and like a vet, you should be fine without tackling in practice. I think you should be able to take those good angles, and as long as you do that, things will show on Monday night.”
Sitting starters is a growing trend in the NFL.
Through two weeks of preseason games, 19 of the league’s 32 starting quarterbacks have taken the field. Another, New Orleans’ Jameis Winston, probably would have played if he didn’t miss two weeks with a foot injury. The Broncos are taking things a step further by sitting the vast majority of their starters.
And for Jewell, that means no real tackling. Instead, he’ll focus on the other areas of the game.
“Just making sure we take these practice reps to heart,” he said.
Football is, notably, a contact sport. Just about everybody is impacted by not going to the ground.
For running back Melvin Gordon, no tackling means no practice trying to bulldoze defenders.
“There’s nothing to simulate a game feeling,” Gordon said. “There’s really nothing that you can do. Your heartrate is up and everything like that. It’s so different.”
Gordon stands by Hackett’s decision, though.
“It’s a sour feeling when you lose one of your main guys before the regular season even starts,” Gordon said. “We understand that he looks out for us as far as that aspect and we look out for him as far as coming out here and doing what we need to do.”
Hackett is past of a wave of young coaches who are playing starters less in the preseason, choosing health over live reps. But while he seems to be following a trend set by Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur, his philosophy started to develop years ago.
When asked if there was a preseason moment in his father Paul Hackett’s career that stood out to him the most, the younger Hackett answered quickly.
“Chad Pennington,” he said.
In 2003, Paul Hackett was the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator. His quarterback was Pennington. The former first-round pick was coming off his first season as a starter, during which he led the NFL in completion percentage and passer rating.
But in the second quarter of a cross-town exhibition against the Giants, Pennington broke his wrist. Despite an initial prognosis that sparked fears he would miss the entire season, Pennington returned to the field in Week 8.
But you could make a strong case he played the worst football of his 11-year NFL career.
Hackett was a target of the media. He lost fan support. He resigned a year later and never held a position as an offensive coordinator or head coach again.
“I remember that one very clearly,” the younger Hackett said of the injury.
Despite only playing three or four starters in the preseason, Hackett’s squad was already bitten by the injury bug. Projected starting linebacker Jonas Griffith took the field in the preseason opener. On the first play, he made a tackle at the line of scrimmage. On the second, he met the running back in the hole again, but his arm buckled when it was trapped between the back and a lineman. He dislocated his elbow and may not be ready for the regular-season opener.
Keeping important players out of harm’s way feels like a good idea. But the safe route has costs, too.
Jewell, Gordon and the rest of the team not practicing physicality could lead to a couple of missed opportunities early in the season. That’s a small concern.
But the Broncos are also passing on an opportunity to learn about themselves.
For example, the backup offensive line has been terrible when blocking for the running backs. (To be fair, they were playing against starters last week.) They made made a couple of physical mistakes but they also weren’t always on the same page before the snap. They ran to the wrong places, blocked the wrong people and the creases weren’t created where they should have been.
It’s fine, since it won’t hurt the team in the regular season. Almost all of those guys will be on the bench.
But what if the Broncos starters up front had played, and played poorly? The staff could find the problems, fix them and hopefully solve the issues before the season starts. Or at the very least, know they can’t expect dominant run-blocking when they get to Seattle.
Or what if the right side of the line was dominant, and the Broncos knew they should pound the rock to that side going into the season?
What if Courtland Sutton mossed three different cornerbacks in the preseason, so the coaches knew to feature more 50-50 balls?
What if Kareem Jackson was rusty in coverage and maybe it’s time to rotate Caden Sterns in a little bit more?
What if Bradley Chubb and Dre’Mont Jones had better chemistry on stunts than Chubb and D.J. Jones?
The preseason is a learning opportunity. Some sort of usable information could have come out of it. And Hackett is willing to let that go to waste in exchange for health. It’s a bold call. It’s one of his first big football decisions.
Some fans are upset with the decision. But even more would be upset if he was playing the starters. Maybe that’s a sign he’s doing things right.
We’ll find out 358 days after Josey Jewell’s last tackle.
