In an effort to improve special teams, Broncos suffer a major blow to their defense

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For years, the Broncos have been missing the special in their special teams unit as a whole.

That’s why, despite four-straight losing seasons, George Paton placed a heavy emphasis on rebuilding Denver’s special teams in their free agent signings, the draft and constructing their final 53-man roster.

Vic Fangio followed his General Manager’s lead on the field in the first two weeks of the season.

“We’ve made a commitment to improve our special team,” the head coach stated on Monday. “We’ve got a few [starters] that do that—that play in the special teams that are considered starters. We’re just looking to make our special teams better.”

On Sunday, that commitment to special teams took a direct hit to the middle of Denver’s defense.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Josey Jewell tore his pec against the Jaguars. The play Josey suffered the season-ending injury was on special teams.

On Monday, Fangio did not confirm that Jewell was in fact out for the season as tests are still being conducted, but did say it was a pec injury to the former fourth-round pick.

Despite being Denver’s starting inside linebacker and the defense’s play caller, Fangio said there was never a discussion about taking him off special teams. That’s the type of commitment the Broncos have to improving that unit this year.

“When I was in San Francisco, NaVorro Bowman—who was All Pro all three years and contending for Defensive Player of the Year—covered every single punt for three years in San Francisco,” Fangio said, standing by he and the team’s decision to play starters on special teams despite the risk of injury.

Jewell, in the final year of his rookie contract, was off to an incredible start to the season. In less than two full games, No. 47 racked up a forced fumble, a pass defense and two tackles for a loss. In Week 1, he played every defensive snap.

“The difference between this team and years past is we do have the depth behind key players that everyone, from coaches to players, feels confident in with these guys stepping in,” Shelby Harris stated about the next-man-up mentality.

“All the years past, an injury would happen, you’d be like, ‘Damn, what are we going to do?’ But this year, I just feel like with the young guys we have, with the veteran presence and what we expect out of our players and how we hold our players to like the highest of standards, that’s all going to come into play on Sunday,” Harris continued.

In place of Jewell, the Broncos will turn to second-year inside backer Justin Strnad.

“He came in and did a nice job,” Fangio said about Strnad’s game against the Jaguars. “I was pleased with the way he played. He was far from perfect. There’s a lot of things he could do better. Moving forward, now that he knows he may be the guy if Josey is out, that he’ll get more practice and be more mentally ready for it. Hopefully he’ll play good.”

After watching Strnad practice this year, Harris said, “I see the way Justin analyzes the game and I just think he’s ready to take that next step. He just needed an opportunity. And this is his opportunity.”

Fellow starting inside linebacker Alexander Johnson took over play calling duties once Jewell left the game on Sunday. Fangio said he wasn’t sure if Johnson will continue to do that moving forward or if Strnad will take over those duties.

After missing a majority of the offseason and training camp, rookie third-round pick Baron Browning is still not fully caught up on defense, but “he’s made good progress,” according to the head coach.

Along the rest of the injury front, Bradley Chubb’s ankle “acted up again,” Fangio announced without further detail on Monday.

After missing the first game of the season with an ankle injury, the star pass rusher was medically clearance to play against the Jaguars. But that same ankle flared up when he was attempting to sack Trevor Lawrence on Sunday.

Despite Chubb being listed as questionable and his ankle heavily tapped, Fangio said there wasn’t a thought to holding him out one more week because “the medical people thought it was basically going to be the same yesterday as it would be next Sunday. They felt good about letting him play. He felt good about playing. So he played.”

There isn’t a timeline yet on Chubb’s return.

Not only did the Broncos lose a key contributor to their special teams on Sunday, they also lost their starting inside linebacker. Oh, to make matters even worse for Tom McMahon’s unit, Denver also gave up a 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on Sunday.