SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 In the span of a few seconds, Brock Purdy stepped into the same world of hurt that Bo Nix has called home all offseason.<\/p>\n
A handful of 11-on-11 reps into Thursday\u2019s joint practice with the Broncos, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan\u2019s freewheeling offense started spinning its wheels in the trenches. John Franklin-Myers and D.J. Jones gobbled up a handoff to 49ers stud Christian McCaffrey. Zach Allen and Levelle Bailey sniffed out another toss. Dondrea Tillman chased Purdy around on a rollout. Bodies shuffled off the turf, and it seemed for a moment that Shanahan\u2019s attack would draw a reprieve, Purdy with a chance to attack third-stringers.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
Immediately, Eyioma Uwazurike and rookie Sai\u2019vion Jones deflated the pocket in on Purdy for a would-be sack. Immediately, the next play, Franklin-Myers trotted in and blew through an offensive lineman for another\u00a0would-be sack, roaring at his conquest.<\/p>\n
After the Broncos\u2019 frontmen pillaged San Francisco for the better part of two hours, Castle Rock native and 49er Christian McCaffrey stood in front of reporters and confirmed what Denver\u2019s offense has known for a few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s a good D-line,\u201d McCaffrey said, blank. \u201cReally good D-line, and good defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Too\u00a0good, for their own good. The Broncos brought in six defensive linemen on their initial 53-man roster in 2024. They\u2019ll be hard-pressed to make those same cuts this camp with a group that proved it can capably rotate three-deep against a dynamic San Francisco offense Thursday.<\/p>\n
Jordan Jackson, an Air Force product who made Denver\u2019s roster in a breeze last year, is now on the bubble. He had a couple of would-be sacks and an impressive deflection at the line of scrimmage Thursday. Uwazurike stacked another day of brute-force strength in the run game. Jones got a boatload of reps as the Broncos attempt to evaluate what they have in their third-round pick, the 289-pound rookie moving on the inside with the get-off of an edge rusher.<\/p>\n
Allen, Franklin-Myers, D.J. Jones and Malcolm Roach are already locks on the interior. Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Jonah Elliss, Que Robinson, Andrew Farmer and Tillman are all vying for roster spots on the edge. There is no easy answer on who the Broncos knock off this carousel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like we had pressure all the time,\u201d safety Talanoa Hufanga said after his return to San Francisco. \u201cThe depth is there. I think it\u2019s like \u2014 that\u2019s the cool thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the starting five, you got a five-man front, but you got depth. Everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a problem for head coach Sean Payton, who noted after the joint practice that there\u2019s \u201ca lot of competition for spots.\u201d It\u2019s also a wonderful problem to have at this point in training camp.<\/p>\n
That strength helped draw inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw to the Broncos this offseason. And in the season\u2019s first taste of action against another actual NFL offense Thursday, it became abundantly clear that an equally deep Broncos secondary will run on the fuel pumped by the D-line.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a feisty room, and it\u2019s a close-knit room,\u201d defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said this week. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the heartbeat of our defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early in team periods Thursday, as Uwazurike, Jones and Franklin-Myers stormed through the drawbridge of Purdy\u2019s fortress, San Francisco could hardly manufacture any substantial yardage. There was a jump-cut by McCaffrey here. A quick-hit to RB Corey Kiner there. But standard drop-backs collapsed enough on Purdy to both contain his scrambling and speed up throws into blanketed coverage. One resulted in a diving pass break-up from Riley Moss, while others ended with balls skidding across the Santa Clara turf.<\/p>\n
As the morning wore on and the sacking wore off \u2014 minus one monstrous bull-rush from Tillman \u2014 the 49ers\u2019 offense opened up with cleaner pockets for Purdy. Rookie corner Jaden Robinson got burned deep a couple of times, and the Broncos\u2019 back-end folded like paper on one red-zone look where Purdy didn\u2019t feel as much as a whisper.<\/p>\n
First-round pick Jahdae Barron got beat one-on-one on a beautiful throw from Purdy to receiver Ricky Pearsall for a touchdown. Barron rebounded a few plays later to record a sack himself on a crafty blitz, a package he\u2019s thrived in throughout camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody always talks about the deer in the headlights, and being a rookie, and it\u2019s like, the bright lights,\u201d Hufanga said. \u201cBut he\u2019s been calm under pressure, and that\u2019s a really cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barron\u2019s development, same as the development of Joseph\u2019s entire secondary, will be helped by consistent rotations up front. The Broncos, clearly, have the bodies to keep Allen, Franklin-Myers and Jones fresh. The question is which bodies they\u2019ll keep. Uwazurike has as much upside as any depth piece, but has played 12 games across a three-year NFL career interrupted by a gambling suspension. Jackson had the best day of any Broncos defensive lineman Thursday, but he is a 27-year-old second-year grinder who didn\u2019t particularly impress in his snaps last year.<\/p>\n
Whoever gets caught in the forthcoming weeks\u2019 roster trim, though, should have their share of suitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the objective is to put your best tape on film, certainly for the club you\u2019re playing with,\u201d Payton said. \u201cAnd then also for the other 31, that may be looking for a position you play.\u201d<\/p>\n