Fangio Says Broncos CB Bryce Callahan has Lost Some Weight but his Foot is 'Fine'
The Denver Broncos defense, if it's going to reach its potential in 2020, will surely need all hands on deck. One of those trusty sets of hands Vic Fangio will be counting on is veteran cornerback Bryce Callahan.
Last year, the Broncos lost several key starters to injury for most of the season, including Callahan, who has yet to play a single regular-season snap in the Orange and Blue. Callahan was signed as a second-wave free agent last year after spending his first four NFL seasons with Fangio in Chicago.
In Callahan's final season as a Bear (2018), he suffered a foot injury that saw him land on injured reserve to close the year out. After a procedure on the foot, Callahan hit free agency where the Broncos signed him to a three-year, $21 million deal.
Everything was going well as Callahan was one of the storyline sensations to emerge from 2019 OTAs but that momentum came crashing to a halt when a teammate inadvertently stepped on his foot during a training camp scrimmage. Callahan would never really return to action and despite opening the regular season on the 53-man roster, the Broncos eventually bit the bullet and sent him to IR when his foot showed no improvement with time.
Fast forward to today, and Callahan is now almost a full year removed from the last corrective procedure on that foot, which found and fixed a broken surgical screw. With training camp kicking off, Coach Fangio provided an update on Callahan's health prognosis, as well as his 2020 prospects.
“Bryce’s health is good," Fangio said via virtual presser on Tuesday. "A week or 10 days before we came back, he got sick—not COVID sick. He had a stomach virus and he lost some weight, so we have to get that back on him. His foot right now is fine, no problems."
It sounds like the least of the Broncos' focus right now is Callahan's foot but rather, working him back to the physical form he was in before that stomach bug caused him to lose some weight. Since the initial focus of training camp is on conditioning, it shouldn't take long for Strength Coach Loren Landow to get Callahan back to where he needs to be.
Assuming he's healthy and fully able to contribute, the question then becomes, where does Callahan fit in the Broncos new-look secondary? Although he was mostly a career nickel in Chicago, in that final year, Callahan played a lot of boundary corner. Fangio gave Broncos fans an answer.
"We’re going to work him at both spots, playing corner and inside at nickel along with obviously a bunch of other people at both positions," Fangio said. "We’ll see how it unfolds by the time we line up against Tennessee, but he’s going to work both spots.”
As I've been telling listeners of the Huddle Up Podcast, it's a safe wager to bet that Callahan will be the No. 2 corner in base defense, playing the boundary opposite of A.J. Bouye. But when the Broncos go into the nickel and dime sub-packages, which accounts for a good 80% of snaps nowadays, Callahan will kick inside to the slot, while a new body will take the field to play the boundary opposite of Bouye.
Who that No. 3 corner will be remains to be seen but a fierce battle is about to be undertaken at Broncos camp for the privilege. Considering that Callahan accepted a contract restructure that was incentive-laden this past spring, and combined with the fact that he hasn't played football since early December of 2018, there's a good chance the Broncos are going to get a highly-motivated cornerback this season.
It's going to be fun to see how it unfolds. Callahan just has to stay healthy.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHudde.
