Broncos EDGE Baron Browning is quietly becoming a problem: Film Breakdown

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The Broncos defense has gone from historically embarrassing to actually pretty good over the last couple weeks. They held the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs to a total of 26 points. They ranked 10th in EPA per play over the last two weeks. And if it keeps up, Vance Joseph might be able to save his job. There are a few reasons for that. 

Zach Allen was a big free agency signing. He's been much better over the last half of the season. The linebackers, if you remove Week 3's forgettable Miami Dolphins game, have actually been pretty solid for most of the year. They benched Damarri Mathis who is really struggling, replaced him with Fabian Moreau who's been a night and day difference. And Ja'Quan McMillian is a second year, UDFA out of East Carolina and has probably been their defensive MVP. He had an outstanding performance against the Chiefs, but the change I want to talk about is adding Edge Rusher Baron Browning back into the lineup. 

He started out the year on the pup list after he got knee surgery in the off season. And he was one of the Broncos players heading into the year that I was most excited to watch. He's a converted linebacker out of Ohio State. He had some insane flashes last year in his first season rushing off the edge. If you go back to the Indianapolis Colts game in week 5, he was just unblockable. But the production died down as the season went on. He's really explosive he can win around the corner easily and he actually generates a surprising amount of power for someone that's technically undersized. 

But he needed to develop more ways of winning for that to sustain against better competition. And to start off, I've gotta show this longarm against the Packers. He's a converted linebacker, just under 6'3 245 pounds. His weight is in the 8th percentile for edge rushers. But he actually has a good build to be an undersized power rusher. He's got a 40 inch vertical jump, 33. 5 inch arms. So he can get into blocker's frames pretty quickly and use that length to create separation. And you see that right here, Rasheed Walker gets into a jump set. He's trying to be aggressive establishing contact. 

But when he widens out his hands to land that punch, that opens up his chest for the long arm. Browning just establishes contact, drives him into the pocket, and Jordan Love has to throw off his back foot. Actually a pretty accurate pass down the sideline. Right here. He's going to go with a speed rush around the edge. Now there are better examples of this on Baron Browning's tape, as he's only rushed the passer 30 times this year, and he has 6 pressures and 2 sacks. But this is gonna be his bread and butter. He really has a leet bend to turn the corner, flatten his angle. 

He uses kind of a ghost move where he stabs with the inside hand, draws out the punch from Rasheed Walker. Drawing out that punch prevents Walker from being able to recover and protect the corner. browning's able to dip underneath, explode at a 90 degree angle correctly to the quarterback. Right here he uses a long arm on Donovan Smith and is able to drop his answer after a couple of steps. But Browning has a relentless motor even if he doesn't win immediately. He's continuing to fight to pressure the quarterback. 

He disengages, works around the corner, strips the ball out from Patrick Mahomes right as he's getting into his throwing motion and the Broncos recover. This is a funny play right here; both of the edge rushers are basically just speed contain rushing. Browning has to work around the chip out from Travis Kelce, so Nik Bonitto gets there first. gets a hand on Mahomes who thinks he has an opening out of the pocket to the right, but Browning's right there in his face. He redirects back to the left, and then browning chases them right into Donovan Smith and gets the sack.

But the great thing about Baron Browning, is he isn't the speed rusher that you've got to take out of the game on rushing downs. Right here it's 3rd and 2, the Chiefs are running this shovel pass that they run all the time. He widens out upfield, Mahomes, shovels it to Rashee Rice, and then Browning crashes back inside, stops him short of the sticks and they've gotta kick a field goal. Right here the Chiefs are running outside zone out of shotgun. They got this trade block on Baron Browning with the left tackle and the tight end. Donovan Smith makes the tackle for a short gain.

On this play the Chiefs are running crack toss, Baron Browning starts out trying to go upfield, but he identifies the run quickly, he's got the tight end trying to crack block and wash him out of the play; but he does a good job creating knockback without initial engagement with two hands. And then as he works outside, he's able to continue to build up speed, force the ball carrier to the sideline and use that left hand to just jab the block from the tight end. 

So, Baron Browning's an exciting player. The potential is off the charts. Only two games back from the injury, and they've been slowly working him into the lineup. But what he can do as a speed rusher that can also hit you with power I think has a chance to be really special.