Alex Singleton lined up the chance to take a crack at his buddy and, like the prolific tackler he is, didn’t miss.
Have you allowed yourself to consider, a reporter asked, that Sunday could be the last game you play next to Josey Jewell?
“Oh, thank god,” Singleton said.
A joke, of course.
Not only that, but perhaps a bit of a guard against too deep a ponder on the matter. After all, Singleton and Jewell have become close friends in their two seasons patrolling the middle of the Broncos defense together. They live close to each other, eat the same food and somehow are rarely seen more than a few feet apart, even though their lockers are across the room from each other at the Centura Health Training Center.
Jewell’s two-year, $11 million contract is up after this season. The Broncos could work something out with him between now and the start of free agency in March, or he could end up playing elsewhere for the first time after six years with Denver.
Singleton, actually, says he hopes their run together continues.
“It’s been awesome,” Singleton told The Denver Post. “It’s been the best duo I’ve been in, and that’s saying a lot because I think me and T.J. Edwards played really well together in (Philadelphia).
“I definitely hope it is not the last time. I’m going to bank on that.”
Not just because they’re close friends or because “The Outlaw” has put down roots in Denver and played in 77 games since getting drafted in the fourth round in 2018. Also because returning the pair and safety Justin Simmons next year would mean keeping intact the central nervous system and communication hub of Vance Joseph’s defense for a second straight year.
“It would be huge,” Singleton said. “It would be kind of how me and him were this year. It would be another year with Vance for us three to be able to do everything that we’ve done and then adding Justin Simmons into that, it makes it another step and another guy that would make it a lot easier.”
Singleton and Jewell had similar uncertainty last year, though it was Singleton who didn’t have a contract. He and the Broncos agreed on the first day of free agency to a three-year deal with $9 million guaranteed that was worth up to $16 million. For a former journeyman, it marked the first time Singleton signed a multiyear deal in his football career.
“It’s the worst part about all of this,” he said of the annual turnover. “It’s usually me that’s like, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to be,’ so it’s pretty weird being on this end of it. But you hope we’re all back because you can just continue to get better. I just think we’ve shown that we can do that and I think we deserve to be able to do that. But we’ll see what they decide upstairs.”
It’s difficult to handicap odds of Jewell returning at this point in the proceedings — the Broncos are in for an interesting offseason on the free agency front depending on what happens with Russell Wilson’s contract — but there’s one wrinkle that’s developed in recent weeks.
When Denver selected Drew Sanders in the third round of April’s draft, head coach Sean Payton said he prototyped as a “Mike” linebacker in the middle of the field. Translation: Jewell’s spot. Young guy drafted relatively high. Veteran in the last year of his deal. The math’s not difficult.
Except Sanders has played more outside linebacker in recent weeks, and Payton last month acknowledged he wasn’t sure what Sanders’ future held, only that he still considered it bright.
“If you asked me, ‘How do you see his vision five years out?’ I don’t know that, I could honestly say OLB or ILB,” Payton said. “But I like the fact that he has that versatility, and I think that will define itself as he gets (further).”
This week, Joseph talked about Sanders as if he thought the former Arkansas standout’s future was on the edge.
“Outside ’backer is a specialized position with the edge setting and rushing games and dropping into coverage,” Joseph said. “(Sanders) is a natural athlete, so the dropping part is going to be easy for him. Just rushing and playing against big men is going to be his issue and his learning curve. Watching him last week, man, he’s improved a lot and he’s made a lot of plays the past couple of weeks.
“He’s excited about being an outside ’backer.”
Singleton would be excited to have Jewell next to him in the future.
“Josey’s got better every single week, and you want guys to be doing that late in the year because that’s proving that you can play meaningful games and playoff games and all that stuff,” Singleton said. “He’s done that and that’s all you can hope for. It’s kind of a wash in the early weeks because everyone’s getting better or worse. But if you can grow in October, November, December, that’s showing that you’re a guy that’s committed to the team and winning football games.”
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