Fangio: Alexander Johnson, Mike Purcell Played 'Well Enough To Continue' As Broncos Starters

Getting their first win of the season was cause enough for the Denver Broncos to celebrate, but uncovering two defensive diamonds in the rough only makes the victory all the sweeter.

The Broncos received monumental contributions from linebacker Alexander Johnson and defensive lineman Mike Purcell, both whom made their first career starts in a Broncos uniform in Week 5.

For his part, Johnson finished with nine tackles (six solo), two passes defensed and an interception. He had two plays that kept the Chargers from getting points. One, a goal-line tackle in space on RB Austin Ekeler (no mean feat) and two, the interception, which came in the end zone.

Johnson finished with a 91.9 individual grade via Pro Football Focus, which is the highest grade the analytics site has given out to a Broncos player this season. Meanwhile, Purcell might not have filled up the stat sheet but his presence at nose tackle allowed Shelby Harris to play more at defensive end and the results speak for themselves. 35 yards rushing allowed.

On Monday, head coach Vic Fangio was asked directly whether the performances of Johnson and Purcell were enough to justify keeping them in their starting slots again next week.

“Yeah, they both played well enough to continue," Fangio said.

That's not the greatest news for a couple of recent Broncos' draft picks. For the first time in his career, Adam Gotsis was rendered a healthy scratch last week in order to vault Purcell into the lineup.

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Josey Jewell's situation is a little bit different as he's been banged up with a hamstring injury. They say you're not supposed to lose your starting job because of injury but when your replacement balls out of control and plays at a far higher level than you have before you got hurt, you can't be surprised to get benched.

For what it's worth, just because Gotsis was the odd man out this week doesn't mean he will be next. However, both DeMarcus Walker and Dre'Mont Jones played well in L.A., making impact plays of the sort that have been few and far between for Gotsis.

“We keep five defensive linemen active, it doesn’t have to be the same five every week," Fangio said. "As we get into the game planning and checking the opponent out and seeing what we think we need—who the best five would be for that game, we’ll make that decision.”

Purcell is a fourth-year journeyman and while it's cool to see him getting some sunshine, you've got to be especially happy for Alexander Johnson, who was acquitted of a rape charge that cost him three-plus years of potential playing time and resulted in him having to elbow his way into the league as a college free agent last year. The Broncos made the former Tennessee Volunteer standout a priority signing and have since been developing him.

With how good Johnson was in Week 5, it makes you wonder what in the Sam Hill the Broncos coaching staff was thinking to play Corey Nelson in Weeks 1 and 2 while Todd Davis recovered from his calf injury — a player literally added on the doorstep of the season-opener — instead of Johnson, whom Coach Fangio had under his wing, learning and playing in the system all year long.

“He’s a young guy who needs to master his craft a little bit better, meaning assignment-wise and details, but I always knew he was going to eventually get in there somehow someway because he does have talent," Fangio said. "The worst thing you can sometimes do with a guy like that is get him in there too early for a lot of reasons. One, he might not be ready, and he might think he had it made. He needed to earn some stripes on the special teams and improve there. I had a feeling he would go in and play well yesterday. Now, was he perfect? You saw a lot of good plays, but the plays you didn’t notice—there were some accidents ready to happen that didn’t get exploited and he needs to clean those up. That’s part of the reason, not the only reason, that he hadn’t played much earlier.”

What matters is that Johnson is finally seeing the field now and it sounds like his opportunity to play on defense as a starter will continue into Week 6 vs. the Tennessee Titans. It'll be a test for the second-year linebacker, as the Titans' rushing attack features the 6-foot-3, 240-pound tailback in Derrick Henry.

Fangio was so pleased with Johnson's performance on Sunday that he gave the young linebacker the game ball that John Elway presented to him for his first career victory as a head coach. That's saying something. But at the same time, as good as Johnson was on Sunday, he's just scratching the surface on his potential. There will be growing pains.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.

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