{"id":213358,"date":"2025-07-17T04:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T04:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/213358\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T04:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T04:52:12","slug":"whos-next-up-after-dre-greenlaw-alex-singleton-for-broncos-ilbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/213358\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s next up after Dre Greenlaw, Alex Singleton for Broncos’ ILBs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighth in a series previewing the Broncos\u2019 2025 roster in the weeks leading up to the start of training camp in late July. Today: Inside linebackers. Previously: Quarterbacks<\/a> | Running backs<\/a> | Wide receivers<\/a> | Tight ends<\/a> | Offensive line<\/a> | Defensive line<\/a> | Outside linebackers<\/a><\/p>\n

On the roster (8): Levelle Bailey, JB Brown, Karene Reid, Alex Singleton, Justin Strnad, Jordan Turner, Dre Greenlaw, Drew Sanders<\/p>\n

How many on the 53?: Four, depending on how the Broncos view Sanders, who has profiled more as an outside linebacker but has now moved inside. Theoretically, this should be easy to project with Singleton, Greenlaw, Sanders and Strnad back on a one-year deal after filling in capably as a starter in 2024. But a ton of younger guys \u2014 Bailey, UDFAs Brown, Reid and Turner \u2014 got plenty of snaps in offseason activities with both Singleton and Greenlaw still working back from injury, and any one could push for a spot this fall.<\/p>\n

Most impactful offseason move:\u00a0Signing Greenlaw.<\/p>\n

Four months after the Broncos lured Greenlaw away from the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> with a three-year contract in free agency, Denver has yet to truly see him in action. The 28-year-old played just two games in 2024 (at a high level) after an Achilles tear in that February\u2019s Super Bowl, and strained his quad this offseason<\/a>. The deal\u2019s a bit of a gamble.<\/p>\n

But gambles are safer when one understands their collection of assets, and a healthy Greenlaw could push an already-fearsome Broncos defense up a couple of rungs. He\u2019s elite in coverage, a hard hitter and a noted locker-room stabilizer from his days in San Francisco. This room has more question marks than any other in Vance Joseph\u2019s defense. Having a productive Greenlaw for 15-ish games would solve many of them.<\/p>\n

Biggest question to answer in camp:\u00a0Can Alex Singleton hit the ground running again?<\/p>\n

If so, Denver has a solid duo set to fly around and smack some dudes over the middle of the field. But it\u2019s a pretty big if.\u00a0Singleton has been champing at the bit to return to action since<\/a> finding out he\u2019d played a football game on a torn ACL early last year. He was active and running sprints during minicamp despite not participating in much team action. In his last healthy season in 2023, he racked up 177 tackles. He\u2019ll have plenty of motivation to return to form in \u201925, with the Broncos\u2019 playoff aspirations and a contract year awaiting.<\/p>\n

Battle to watch:\u00a0Drew Sanders vs. a defined role<\/p>\n

Beyond natural jockeying at the back of the room, this is easily the most fascinating subplot of the Broncos\u2019 ILB group. Sanders racked up 9.5 sacks at Arkansas in 2022, was drafted by Denver in the third round in 2023 and has spent a couple of years since floating in a void of uncertain role and unfortunate injury<\/a>. Head coach Sean Payton has stamped Sanders as an inside linebacker this offseason, far from an easy positional shift to make in one\u2019s third year in the NFL.<\/p>\n

But Sanders thrived in college, bringing chaos from the inside. It\u2019s not hard to see Joseph getting creative and deploying Sanders in specific blitz packages and pressure situations, perhaps spelling Greenlaw as a pass-rusher from the interior.<\/p>\n

Under the radar player:\u00a0Strnad.<\/p>\n

Weird to say after Strnad put himself very much\u00a0on\u00a0the radar out of necessity in 2024, starting eight games at ILB when Singleton went down, but he could be a quietly integral piece for Denver. There\u2019s roughly a .03% chance that Singleton and Greenlaw start all 17 games together, and Strnad is the natural next man up.<\/p>\n

He tied for Denver\u2019s lead in missed tackles last year, according to Pro Football Focus. But Payton mentioned at minicamp Strnad is operating with \u201cconfidence\u201d after playing a full year on defense, and he\u2019ll more than likely have his share of reps again in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighth in a series previewing the Broncos\u2019 2025 roster in the weeks leading up to the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[3882,1001,232,5294,231,258,2426,1160,3911,7,3907,929,926,6,1813,9,2832],"class_list":{"0":"post-213358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-alex-singleton","9":"tag-arkansas","10":"tag-broncos","11":"tag-broncos-defense","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-broncos","14":"tag-denverbroncos","15":"tag-dre-greenlaw","16":"tag-drew-sanders","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-justin-strnad","19":"tag-latest-headlines","20":"tag-more-broncos-news","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-sean-payton","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-vance-joseph"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114866785541660739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}