ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Baron Browning didn’t rush to his interview as the Broncos’ featured player of the week.
He first followed the 2 ½ hour practice by working against the levered arm pad contraption – coaches call it the “Sack Master” -- near a side field. Batting the pads with his left or right forearms, shifting his footwork around to the left or right. A good 15-minute workout after the 2 ½-hour practice.
>Video above: Preview: Broncos to play Bills in their second preseason game Saturday
This was good. Browning has all the skills to make the successful transition from inside linebacker, where plugging the run is priority No. 1, to outside linebacker, where sacking the quarterback is paramount. He is ideally put together, fast for his size, athletic with an ability to bend from the waist and still have the speed and power to beat a 300-pound offensive tackle.
He flashed all his skills in the Broncos’ 17-7 preseason win last Saturday against the Dallas Cowboys in front of nearly 65,000 fans at Empower Field at Mile High. Browning made three tackles, broke up a pass downfield, and had a 12-yard sack.
But there is flashing a superb performance in a preseason opener and there is performing week after week in September, October and on through January.
Browning understands this.
“I think it’s like what we did today, coming out and practicing hard,’’ he said in a sit-down interview with 9NEWS this week. “Taking advantage of the opportunity every day to get better. That’s been my mindset every day, that when I step inside those white lines, nothing else matters. And just trying to maximize that day and get one percent better. If I can keep stacking small gains every day, it’ll lead to a big gain.’’
The next step toward consistent performance is Saturday when the Broncos play the Buffalo Bills and starting quarterback Josh Allen in preseason game No. 2 in Orchard Park, N.Y. (Kickoff at 11 a.m. MDT, Channel 20).
It may seem odd that Bills' coach Sean McDermott is playing his starters against mostly Broncos' backups -- until you remember the Broncos under Vic Fangio flipped this preseason script last year, playing starters against backups for the Vikings, Seahawks and Rams.
Besides, Browning is a backup who figures to play 25-30% of the defensive snaps this year if starters Randy Gregory and Bradley Chubb stay healthy. So bring on Josh Allen.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the opportunity,'' Allen said. "Yes it’s a game but it’s really like another practice with people there. So just another opportunity to get better and work my skill set.”
He wants it. As Browning sat in his interview chair, he looked bigger. Bigger in the chest, arms and shoulders compared to the player 9NEWS had sit down for an interview as a rookie last year. All players get considerably stronger after their rookie years as they realize the pounding of 16 or 17 weeks of professional football requires greater body protection than what they carried along in college. Browning had the added incentive of switching positions.
At one point, he said he put on 25-30 pounds of muscle from the 229 pounds he carried to his inside linebacker position last year.
“I had to,’’ he said. “Those tackles are big.’’
He laughed. Browning has since lost several pounds the natural way through training camp practice. Still, he’s a bigger version of the Browning who was drafted out of Ohio State last year with the final pick in the third round.
“On the inside you have more on your plate, you have more responsibilities,’’ Browning said. “The hardest transition (to the outside) is you have to be very decisive, like quick. When I first got moved, especially early in OTAs, I was having trouble with coming off and trying to read: 'Is it run, is it pass?’ Because I was so used to being on the inside where I had 3 to 5 yards off so I had time to balance my feet, diagnose it and then react. Versus on the edge, you’ve got to get off and then react.
“That was a little transition for me but it didn’t take me long to learn and having vets like Chubb, Malik Reed, Randy, just learning from those guys and my coaches and getting feedback, it helped fix my problem.”
It wasn’t a complete surprise Broncos general manager George Paton and head coach Nathaniel Hackett moved Browning from inside linebacker – where he started nine games as a rookie last year – to the outside where the team seems almost over-stacked with talented.
Considering Browning missed the entire 2021 offseason from a leg fracture near the knee, then was nicked up with various injuries here and there during the regular season, his play at inside linebacker was admirable.
“He did a nice job,’’ Paton said. “For a rookie linebacker, he had to wear the green dot (and relay the play calls to his teammates). He did a lot of nice things. Really athletic.
“But we wanted the best version of Baron. And we felt that would be on the outside on the edge, rushing the passer. You see his size, the length, the explosion, the freaky skills. You can see it. We’ve seen it every practice. So we think it’s the right position for Baron.’’
NFL scouts and coaches debated this as he came out of Ohio State a year ago. Browning mostly played inside linebacker for the Buckeyes, but on third-and-long situations he would shift to an outside linebacker position in a 4-3 set. There was enough film for some to see him as an edge linebacker, but Fangio saw the athleticism better suited on the inside. Maybe because at the time the Broncos had a greater need at inside linebacker than outside.
The position uncertainty may have been why the former 5-star high school recruit out of Fort Worth, Texas fell to pick No. 105 in the draft.
“Yeah, just because people weren’t sure where I would be suited,’’ Browning said. “I always thought it was outside but I can only control what I can control.”
Now that he has his preference, Browning is calling on all available resources to make sure he stays on the outside. One of his favorite new teachers is Dom Capers, the Broncos senior defensive assistant who just turned 72 and is in his 35th NFL season as coach. Browning was spotted chatting with Capers during a break in the practice action Thursday.
“Sometimes we talk about my pad level, what I can do better in the run game,’’ Browning said. “Or things I can even do better in my pass-rush game to maybe set up another move I might want to do later.
“A variety of things we talk about but I definitely have learned a lot from coach Capers and glad we have him on board because just having someone with that much knowledge who has seen it all and has been around so many great pass rushers is huge for someone like myself who’s going into his first year at an edge position.’’
Browning also pays attention whenever the Twin $14 Million Men who are ahead of him on the depth chart, Chubb and Gregory, have something to say.
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“I’m so grateful – I say it to myself all the time – I feel so blessed to be in a room with so much talent and vets like Chubb, Randy, Malik Reed,’’ Browning said. “I just learned a lot from those guys. Watching film with them. Picking their brains on, ‘What did you see in order for you to do this move?’ Whatever the case might be.
“And coming from a school like Ohio State, it’s the best of the best. You’re competing every day so I’m not bothered by coming here and competing every day. I enjoy it and I look forward to it because it allows me the opportunity to get better every day.”
When Fangio was the coach, edge rushers Chubb and Von Miller sometimes played better than 85% of the snaps. That’s not how Paton has it set up for the Broncos this year. With Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Derek Carr the opposing quarterbacks inside the AFC West, Paton has compiled six edge rushers – Gregory and Chubb, Reed and Browning, second-round draft pick Nik Bonitto and last year’s rookie surprise Jonathon Cooper.
“Real good quarterbacks,’’ Paton said. “Those offenses like to throw the ball. And run the ball -- we feel like our guys can do everything. But we like a wave of rushers throughout a game. Hopefully we’ll have some leads late in games with our offense and our defense can close games. Last year we didn’t do a good job of closing games.”
So far, so good for Browning. He put on a pretty good dance move after his sack of Cooper Rush late in the first half last week. The dance, of course, is another edge-rusher requirement.
“It was really kind of spontaneous,’’ Browning said. “It wasn’t planned.”
Now he has to do it again and again and again into early January.
“Everything I was able to do in the game I feel like it came from the work I put in during the offseason and throughout training camp and leading into the first preseason game,” Browning said. “I’m definitely enjoying it. I’m comfortable there. Definitely feel like I’m at home at this position.”
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