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John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach — a pressure player and a “glue guy” — aiming to help Broncos transform defensive front in 2024
This portion of the offseason means different things to different players.
There’s no pads and no hitting, but lots of learning. It is graded and competitive, but also functionally a precursor to training camp later in the summer.
The Broncos quarterbacks? Every snap, every huddle, every cadence counts, to say nothing of each post-snap decision and throw.
The defensive backs? They’re learning under a new position coach and are adjusting to life without Justin Simmons.
The defensive line? An interesting group because it’s mostly full of veteran players, but also went through an offseason overhaul. They’re getting to know each other as players and also as guys.
Denver this spring added John Franklin-Myers from the New York Jets via trade and signed free agents Malcolm Roach and Angelo Blackson. That trio has played in a combined 250 games — Blackson 128, Franklin-Myers 81 and Roach 41 — but they’re joining with D.J. Jones and Zach Allen for the first time.
Tuesday’s practice was the first time reporters had seen the five of them plus others like Matt Henningsen and Elijah Garcia on the field together.
“It’s been good. It’s new,” Franklin-Myers said Tuesday. “You go to a new team and you understand that it’s not just football, it’s everything else outside of that. Learning the defense, understanding where to take my shots and understanding how to help my teammates be better and how they can help me be better is the challenge. Showing up is the first step and here I am getting the chance to work with these guys each and every day. I’m looking forward to continuing to get better with these guys, learn each other, understand strengths and weaknesses and grow off that.
“Continue to push the offense and ultimately win some games when it’s time.”
Safety P.J. Locke already had an extensive scouting report on Roach since they were teammates at the University of Texas. Roach has consistently graded out as an impactful run defender, but Locke laughed about another way in which Roach makes his presence known.
He’s loud. And he’s not afraid of reminding the offensive players of it regularly.
“He’s crazy. He’s bat-(crap) crazy,” Locke said. “He’s always going to be the guy who’s in the locker room playing music loud as hell early in the morning. He’s going to be loud out here and bring the energy every single time.
“That’s his role and he embraces it. Man, we need it.”
Head coach Sean Payton’s read is that the rest of the Denver defense is embracing it, too.
“He had to steal first base. He was an undrafted free agent,” said Payton, who coached Roach in New Orleans in 2020-21. “He wasn’t born on third base. He had to make it. He’s a guy that appreciates every day, and his teammates quickly — I talked to a few of the other guys that have been here, and very quickly he acclimated himself. I would say he endears himself to his teammates, and I think that’s a good trait.”
That sort of impression is more easily made this time of year than, say, pass-rush impact. Franklin-Myers should bring that after tallying more than 200 pressures over the past four years in New York. The defensive lineman was a salary cap casualty for the Jets, who traded him to Denver during the NFL draft for a 2026 sixth-round pick despite the fact that he’s a starting-caliber player.
“It’s harder for him now to show you those things when we’re not in pads,” Payton said. “So now, it’s alignment, it’s the scheme, where am I at and how am I fitting? I think we’ll see a lot more of that when we’re in pads. You can’t bull rush a guy out here; it’s kind of hard to do. He’s a powerful player. I would say when you grade or look at his pressure statistics over the last four years or five years, it’s pretty interesting. They’re very consistent across the board.
“So you see a very consistent player, but again during these drills you’re not able to necessarily see that.”
Last year the Broncos finished 30th in team pass rush win rate and 28th in run stop win rate. They surrendered a league-worst 5.0 yards per carry to opposing rushing attacks. Not all of that is on the front-line, of course, but one clear priority this offseason was to find more proven players for the defensive line.
You can hear the change already. The Broncos are hoping the impact is readily visible come September.
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