Brandon Jones has been outstanding
The Denver Broncos made a handful of brutal, financially motivated decisions in the 2024 offseason, but few moves had quite the same sting as the team's decision to cut veteran safety Justin Simmons. Simmons had been a fan favorite in Denver for the majority of the last eight years as he assembled one of the most productive careers for a safety in franchise history, and was largely one of the only bright spots on a team that was routinely one of the worst in the league.
Simmons joined the Broncos the year after Super Bowl 50 and obviously never got to make the playoffs as a member of the Denver Broncos. In his place, the Broncos ended up going after a bit of a free agency bargain in former Miami Dolphins third-round pick Brandon Jones, a player who was not exactly the most well-received acquisition this past offseason thanks to the fact that he was replacing Simmons.
Jones was not even a full-time starter for the majority of his time with the Dolphins, so the idea of the Broncos replacing a longtime starter who was arguably one of the top three most productive and best players on the roster?
It wasn't exactly well-received.
Broncos safety Brandon Jones has been more productive than any Denver safety over the last 30 years
Despite the fact that the Broncos made an unpopular decision among the fans, the football guys knew what they were doing. Go figure. Jones had shown some nice development in his time with the Dolphins despite being stuck as sort of a third safety on the depth chart there, and he's had a borderline historic season for the Broncos in 2024
In case you can't see it on that graphic, Jones is the first Broncos safety since Hall of Famer Steve Atwater in 1995 to have 100-plus tackles and three-plus interceptions in the same season. And Jones has done this without playing in every game this season, which is even more remarkable.
And he's not just racking up tackles after the Broncos are missing guys at the first two lines of defense. One of Jones's strengths has always been coming up and playing near the line of scrimmage with his physicality. He comes up and plays in the box plenty and makes big plays as a tackler.
On top of his tackling abilities, Jones has upgraded the Broncos' coverage on the back end significantly when on the field this year. He is allowing a career low 71.3 quarterback rating into his coverage despite nearly double the targets (58) that he's seen in any single year prior to this in his NFL career.
As it turns out, going younger at this position has benefitted the Broncos tremendously. Jones and the Broncos secondary will be getting a huge test on Saturday with their matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals but he has a chance to build on a season unlike any other that most Broncos fans of the last couple generations have even ever seen.
