Josey Jewell & Baron Browning: Denver's New-Look Linebackers

What's the outlook for Josey Jewell and Baron Browning in 2022?

In the early 1970s, I spent my legally required stint in high school. I had blown out my knee wrestling, so I was becoming one with the couch and watching Chicago Bears football.

Back then, the Chicago Sun-Times had a columnist named Mike Royko, who had his finger on the city’s pulse — social, political, and sports. Early one winter, Royko went to a party and saw 6-foot-3, 245-pound future Hall-of-Fame linebacker Dick Butkus, who would later say that the owner threw nickels around like manhole covers.

Butkus would go on to play in the Pro Bowl that year, but that night, he was struggling to get around on two canes. But the next afternoon, Butkus notched 21 tackles, most of them solo. From that day forward, I’ve had a thing for linebackers.

Baron Browning is vacillating between inside and outside linebacker, and we have to wait to see the outcome. Josey Jewell is the often-controversial man in the middle for the Denver Broncos.

Some people don’t see why Jewell is so valuable, but that’s partly because the position has changed so much in the past 10 years. The run fits and power game that defined linebacking for decades no longer is the same, and the pass defense skills have changed in response.

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The New Inside Linebacker

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The ILBs have seen a complete revision of the position in the past decade. Middle linebackers are now a less sought-after option, as the changes to the passing game have required more zone coverage and fewer run fits. But the changes go much deeper than that.

Inside linebackers are less essential in the modern pass-based offensive game, but they still play a key role. The old thumper model — 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-3, 250 pounds, tough as nails, filling a single gap in run fits — doesn’t fit the needs of the modern defense. 

Since defending the pass is more important, the modern ILB needs a different kind of player, one who can be found in the fourth and fifth rounds of the draft. They aren’t amazing athletes. They’re cerebral players with different sorts of bodies.

Wingspan is more important than power; length is more important than strength. Explosion is essential — broad jump, 10-yard splits, vertical leap, and 3-cone drills have replaced the bench press and 40-yard dash. Foot speed is less important than processing speed because the new linebacker has to be more cerebral.

Back to Browning

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Browning is a third-rounder who was a rookie in 2021. Physically, he looks like he was designed for the ILB position. While he sees himself as primarily an OLB, let’s consider his worth for the inside.

Browning is 6-foot-3, an unusual length for an ILB, with 33.5-inch arms — a huge wingspan. He has a 40-inch vertical leap when the positional average is 34-⅝ inches and a 130-inch broad jump that is 12 inches above positional average. Those go with a 6.78-second 3-cone drill when the PA is 7.20. He’s 245 pounds but carries it with explosive speed.

All in all, Browning is physically designed to meet the needs of the zone coverage scheme more than the run-stopping Mike of old. But the knock on him in the draft was about instincts, play recognition, and processing speed.

Lance Zierlein said, “Watching Browning can be a frustrating exercise, as you keep waiting for all the physical tools to match up with better instincts and feel for the game.”

That brings us to why Jewell is currently irreplaceable. When he was injured last season, he took on a new role: teaching Browning, as well as the other linebackers in the room, the theory, and practice of being an ILB. Jewell explained coverage, run fits, watched them, and shared information on technique and anticipation.

He had them over for cookouts and went to cookouts at their homes. Jewell studied them in practice and in games, and worked with them to help them get better.

The result? Browning closed out the season by recording a 75.3 coverage grade via Pro Football Focus over his final five games, ranking eighth among off-ball linebackers. He sees the field with new eyes.

Jewell's Uniqueness

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The Director of AFC scouting said of Jewell, “Give me a guy with his mindset and instincts and I can sell him to a coaching staff even if he's not as big as they are looking for. His tape will win them over."

It has. Jewell doesn’t have the body of a top ILB, but he’s an excellent ILB regardless.

Jewell is 6-foot-1 and 234 pounds, with an NFL average linebacker arm length of 32 inches. He has a 33-inch vertical leap, below the NFL ILB average of 34-5/8 inches, and a 117-inch broad jump, one inch below position average. His 40 was 4.8 seconds, rather than the average PA of 4.7. These are the knocks against him.

But the 3-cone drill PA for ILBs is 7.04: Jewell's 3-cone drill was 6.8 seconds. As Nick Kendell has pointed out, that ranked Jewell in the 94th percentile for the drill at his position, of all time. And quickness has become far more important than speed.

Jewell has taken his leadership role on the field to heart and has become a leader in the locker room, and a teacher/mentor to the ILB room. He watched, analyzed, and taught the linebackers' room, making the team better.

A lesser man would have exclusively focused on his own rehab and called it good. Jewell focused on making the team better — and that’s brilliant.

Paton said, “He was the glue that kept our defense together. He’s so smart and so instinctive. When we lost Josey, it really hurt our defense.”

What makes him so effective is his understanding of the position, his anticipation, and his processing speed. Since high school, Jewell has always had a unique ability to anticipate the play.

He puts himself in position so swiftly that far faster, more explosive players find themself behind the curve in comparison. Jewell earned All-State honors in both football and baseball - he has always had the visual skills to recognize the play of the ball.

Despite his near-perfect physical traits for the ILB position, Browning consistently struggled with play identification. His instincts were poor and he didn’t understand where his eyes needed to go, which lowered his draft grade to 6.29 — eventual starter, but nothing exceptional.

Browning is a better athlete than a linebacker, yet in 2021, he was more than an effective player under Jewell's tutelage. That’s the power of the shared mind, between Jewell and Browning.

Browning sees himself as more of an OLB than ILB and will be given reps at both positions this summer. But, which linebacker would you want calling your defensive plays?

What Changed

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Stopping the run at its simplest means knowing which gap to fill and hitting it. But the modern passing game requires the ILB to consider the entire box, to know where to be in the roughly five-yard-deep area from the ILB to the line of scrimmage and from hashmark to hashmark, to use their wingspan to confound the short pass and their length to handle TEs and slot receivers 1 on 1 as well as stuffing the run.

It’s knowing how to watch the QB’s eyes and to be where the pass will be before the receiver gets there. To do that, he has to know what passes the QB tends to make in that particular down and distance. It’s a cerebral position.

Leadership is making those around you look even better. When injured, Jewell set out to do just that. His head for the game, dedication to his position, and concern for everyone in his group meant that Jewell put the younger defenders into the right positions to win each down and helped upgrade a young ILB with play recognition weaknesses, showing him how to be a top-10 ILB in pass coverage.

Browning has the perfect body for the position. Jewell doesn’t have the body of a top ILB, but he has the qualities that matter even more.

When Jewell eventually leaves the game, his knowledge will continue to matter in the careers of the players he’s taught. 

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