By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos are looking for their 1st win of the season as they prepare to take on the L.A. Chargers on Sunday. They will be without one of their best pass rushers, linebacker Bradley Chubb who is out for the season with a torn ACL. Denver will need somebody to step up in his place.
Chubb was expected to flourish in Denver Broncos’ Head Coach Vic Fangio’s defense. He was coming off his rookie year where he totaled 12 sacks. Denver hoped that number would increase. Denver expected Chubb to be in the face of the quarterbacks early and often. If he didn’t at least Von Miller wouldn’t be double teamed to take down the quarterback. Those pressures were going to equal sacks or chances for the Denver secondary to take the ball away with turnovers.
Unfortunately, Chubb didn’t create that much pressure. When he had a chance to possibly make a play, the quarterbacks tossed the ball before Chubb made contact. The offensive lines were doing a great job of blocking him.
Last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars Chubb finally made some plays. He ended with 1 sack on Jaguars’ quarterback Gardner Minshew. He also forced a fumble on Minshew that Denver couldn’t recover which would have ended the game.
Chubb took himself out of the game twice, first was a calf injury and the second a knee injury. He came back and played. Who knows when Chubb ended up tearing his ACL. It could have happened on either one of those injuries or later in the game.
According to ESPN, Head Coach Vic Fangio said, “It’s a huge loss. He’s one of our better players, obviously. He’s a tempo-setter, a great person, a great leader.”
Denver is going to have a large void to fill on defense. Denver may use Malik Reed or Justin Hollins to replace Chubb. Reed played a little bit against the Jaguars and recorded a sack. If he keeps going after the quarterback like he did on Sunday, he is the answer. Hollins didn’t create as much pressure on the quarterback on Sunday but ended with 6 tackles. It is possible Denver could rotate them the rest of the year.
Denver’s other option is to bring another linebacker in. One they might consider is Dekoda Watson. Watson was with Denver during the preseason. In preseason games Watson had 2 sacks and 5 tackles. He isn’t a bad pickup if Denver decides to go that way.
Denver knows they must generate more pressure on the quarterbacks. If not, opposing quarterbacks will have all the time in the world to throw the football to find their open receiver. It can’t just be Von Miller. Hopefully, they have a linebacker who can help out Miller for sacks to flip field position. art Link Error;
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