As the end of training camp neared for the Broncos and their new prized new safety remained a spectator, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph conceded he had concerns about Brandon Jones’ absence.
Jones signed with the Broncos in free agency as a critical piece of the puzzle Denver was putting together defensively after moving on from Pro Bowl veteran Justin Simmons. He was joining a different system from the one he played in during the first four seasons of his career in Miami, one with “different calls and different language,” as Joseph put it. But Jones suffered a hamstring injury on the first day of training camp, ultimately keeping him out the entire preseason, erasing much of his all-important onboarding period in Denver’s defense.
Joseph didn’t pretend it was an ideal scenario.
“That’s always a concern because playing football and being in the meeting room is different,” Joseph said in late August, just as Jones was nearing the end of his rehab. “Having him back out there and getting reps is important. When guys miss time, it’s critical they get back to the playing field and also off the field having their studies in check. Playing the game is playing the game. It’s not on the sideline.”
It’s safe to say Joseph’s anxiety about Jones has subsided. In a Week 3 victory against the Buccaneers, the 26-year-old intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble and returned those two takeaways a combined 71 yards. The only gripe — one Jones admitted came from his teammates — is that he didn’t score on either return.
“I kind of got a little too busy with my eyes trying to look around,” Jones said the day after the win in Tampa Bay. “A lot of people told me I should have just kept going straight and I would’ve had six. I took the difficult route on that and decided to just drain myself of all of my energy going back and forth throughout the field.”
In Sunday’s 10-9 win against the Jets, Jones forced a fumble on the game’s third play when he landed a textbook tackle on wide receiver Garrett Wilson that jarred the ball loose. The ball was recovered by Broncos cornerback Riley Moss, who returned the favor after Jones recovered the fumble Moss forced in the fourth quarter against the Buccaneers.
Jones became the first Broncos player since 2015 to record an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery within the first four games of a season. He finished Sunday’s game with five tackles and a pass break-up that nearly resulted in an interception.
.@BlessedJones33 forces the fumble, @R_moss5 recovers 💪
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/l9MFxDq5AY
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 29, 2024
“I’m pleased because there’s a little bit of unknown, just not having him (during training camp),” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. “Man, he’s got real good football instincts, savvy. The ball finds him. He’s doing well.”
The Broncos heading into the offseason wanted to be younger and more athletic in the secondary. They had already cut veteran Kareem Jackson at the end of the 2023 season. Simmons, who signed after training camp with the Atlanta Falcons, was released just ahead of free agency, removing one of the Broncos’ longest-tenured players. The Broncos targeted Jones largely because they liked how he made plays in space, comfortable mixing it up near the line of scrimmage while also navigating coverage in the back end.
When Jones arrived in Denver and dove into Denver’s defense, he found similarities to the ones he played in during his four years in Miami. But how the defense was called differed. So as Jones missed training camp, he used idle time to master the calls.
“His biggest challenge was kind of throwing out some of the stuff he knew,” secondary coach Jim Leonhard said. “It might be the same call, but there are little nuances within the structure of the defense he has to forget and reprogram his brain.”
When Jones is comfortable, Leonhard said, he plays as fast as anyone. The Broncos have seen that during the first four weeks of the season. Heading into Sunday’s game, Payton emphasized to his team that beating the Jets was going to require making plays in space. On the third play, Jones closed quickly after Wilson made a short catch, putting his helmet on the ball while making a form tackle.
“He’s always flying around and he finishes plays,” Leonhard said. “He’s the kind of guy who is going to have a handful of plays where you want those back, but he’s also going to make five that nobody else is making, just because of the effort and the energy and the finish that he has. You just try to create as much consistency as possible and eliminate some of those that could get you beat while you’re letting him play and use his eyes and his instincts.”
PICKED!
Brandon Jones gets the ball back for the @Broncos.
📺: #DENvsTB – Sunday on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/gbDwujQh4b— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024
Jones wasn’t the only question while missing time in camp. Safety Caden Sterns hadn’t fully recovered from last season’s knee injury when he entered camp, and the Broncos ultimately released him in August. That left P.J. Locke, who re-signed with the Broncos in March after stepping into a starting role last year, as the only other safety with significant experience in Joseph’s system. But through four games, it would be hard to tell Locke and Jones hadn’t spent much time together in the defensive backfield before the season started. Both have been steady in coverage, and Locke forced a turnover of sorts himself Sunday when he screamed off the edge and sacked Aaron Rodgers on fourth down. They are part of a secondary that has shown its physicality during the two-game winning streak. Moss, the second-year corner starting for the first time this season, has been a sound tackler in space, his fumble-forcing tackle at Tampa Bay being just one example.
“The takeaways are the caused fumbles, the strip sacks and the punch outs. We’ve seen those and that’s something we continue to work on,” Payton said when asked about the tackling tone the secondary has set. “There are some teams that are better than others with it. Then, it kind of becomes contagious. … That’s exciting.”
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(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
