The Denver Broncos picked nine players in the 2022 NFL draft but they did not select an inside linebacker — a bit of a surprise given that ILB was viewed as one of the team’s top draft needs.
The Broncos also failed to land a right tackle and general manager George Paton explained on Saturday evening that the team stuck to their big board and didn’t have a linebacker or tackle fall to them during the draft.
“We had a number of — we wanted to add depth to a number of positions,” Paton said. “It just didn’t fall at those two positions. It fell at nine others. You can’t fill them all. We had nine picks is what we finished with. We like the players we have — like I said, we feel like we helped our depth.”
So where does that leave the team’s LB depth chart?
The two notable in-house candidates to watch are Alex Singleton — who was a starter with the Philadelphia Eagles — and Jonas Griffith, who was a fill-in starter in four games with the Broncos last season.
Baron Browning was practicing as an outside linebacker at minicamp, so it’s unclear how much he’ll factor into the ILB rotation. If the Broncos decide to move Browning back inside, he would presumably be the favorite to start next to Josey Jewell given that he started nine games as a rookie in 2021.
Denver also has two free agents linebackers who remain unsigned in Alexander Johnson and Kenny Young. Either one of those players could be potential bargain signings to add more depth at the position.
For now, Singleton and Griffith appear poised to compete for a starting job with Browning being a wild card depending on what his primary position is in 2022.
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