The Denver Broncos have lacked confidence in their inside linebacking group almost every year since their Super Bowl 50 victory.
While some questions still remain around the current squad, the unit got a massive facelift with the addition of Dre Greenlaw.
What concerns still trouble this position group this offseason? Let’s look.
Dre Greenlaw
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
After a heartbreaking end to his 2023 season, 2024 offered some light at the end of the tunnel for Dre Greenlaw.
Following months of rehab and recovery, Greenlaw returned to the field in Week 15 against the Rams and instantly made it clear that he was still one of the best players on the field at any given moment.
Dre Greenlaw closing space on the check down and not letting Kyren Williams angle up the sideline. pic.twitter.com/T3FdRs7DNK
— Robby (@Robby_NFL) March 11, 2025
The newly signed Bronco recorded eight tackles on just 30 defensive snaps, but even sweeter than the stat line was Greenlaw flying around the field like the Achilles didn’t sap him of a single ounce of his speed and explosiveness.
Unfortunately, his heartwarming return was short-lived, as a calf strain suffered the very next week prematurely ended his season. That said, the season-ending nature of the injury was more of a precaution, considering the recent Achilles injury and San Francisco’s record at the time, than any sort of serious ailment.
Then, he inked a massive contract with the Denver Broncos, a franchise he’s had an affinity for since childhood.
This is Dre Greenlaw at 15 years old
— Denver Broncos 365 (@DailyBroncos) March 30, 2025
He took less money with the #Broncos even after John Lynch and Kyle Shannahan personally flew to his home in Texas and offered him more money than Denver
He wanted to come home and later said “man I feel like it’s destiny” pic.twitter.com/3xph2GMte1
The only way his 2024 could have been better is if he was able to spend more of it on the field. Nonetheless, what we did see was magnificent.
Grade: A-
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
How concerning is Dre Greenlaw’s Achilles and calf muscle moving forward?
Considering how much the Broncos just paid him, one would assume the doctors in Dove Valley feel fairly optimistic about Greenlaw’s long-term outlook, but lower body injuries like an Achilles tear can always hamper a player’s career.
Even though the early signs of Greenlaw on the field have been positive, it will be hard to feel confident in that outlook until we see more of it.
Greenlaw is such a consistent run defender. Aggressive but does his job and is patient. On this rep he's the 2nd level force defender, he plays the outside shoulder of the blocker funneling the back to where his help is.
— Robby (@Robby_NFL) March 11, 2025
Even when he drops his hands and the blocker gets into… pic.twitter.com/G9dHjcylu6
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
As we’ll discuss in more depth in the later sections, the Denver Broncos have to construct a better backup plan for Dre Greenlaw than they currently have.
Justin Strnad was fine last year, but he should still be a reserve and no one knows if Alex Singleton will be an upgrade, considering his age, injury, and recent play.
Denver will almost certainly have to start one of those two players in 2025, and that’s bad enough. They’re just one Greenlaw setback from having to start both, and they have to make sure they’re better insulated from disaster than that.
Alex Singleton
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
One of the more impressive athletic feats we’ve seen in recent Denver Broncos history is Alex Singleton tearing his ACL in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and yet remaining in the game until the final whistle.
The Denver Broncos announced LB Alex Singleton is out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.
— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) September 25, 2024
Its believed Singleton tore his ACL in the 1st half on this play and still finished the game against the Bucs 🤯🤯pic.twitter.com/rEGeisRkQ4
That said, outside of that marvelous accomplishment, Singleton had a brutal 2024 season.
In his limited time on the field, the veteran linebacker failed to return to the 2022 form that earned him his present contract with the team, instead looking more like the troubled 2023 version that landed him on the roster-cut watchlist.
Oftentimes, fans are drawn to Singleton’s total tackle numbers, which do provide some value, but what gets lost in that shuffle is the fact that he misses tackles at one of the highest rates in the league.
In 2024, Singleton missed almost one-fifth of his tackle opportunities, at 19.4 percent — the 13th-worst rate of any linebacker with at least 150 snaps (112 qualifying linebackers), and three points worse than notoriously inconsistent tackler and teammate Justin Strnad. In 2023, Singleton also ranked in the bottom quarter of linebackers in terms of tackling reliability.
Despite his reputation in Broncos Country, Singleton is actually one of the league’s worst tacklers at the position.
Making matters worse is the fact that he’s a limited athlete for the position and struggles in coverage as a result. It’s hard to imagine that concern getting any better with age and a torn ACL.
Plus, the Broncos’ defense didn’t skip a beat when Singleton exited the lineup last season. It wasn’t until a late-December game against the Cincinnati Bengals that his absence even became a point of discussion.
The defense’s sustained dominance without Singeton says a lot about his impact, or lack thereof, and cutting Singleton is the single easiest avenue Denver has to freeing up a few million dollars in cap space. The fact he hasn’t been cut yet is promising, but this is about as bad as one could’ve imagined Singleton’s early April outlook being.
Grade: D-
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
The two largest lingering concerns with Alex Singleton are how good he will be at age 31 off a torn ACL, when he already seemed to be declining, and whether or not the Broncos should cut him.
The latter concern is the easiest to address, as the decision to cut him should be a straightforward one.
Cutting Singleton would free up $5.6 million, and his 2025 market would be lucky to approach $3 million on the open market. Even if the Broncos want him back, they should cut him and sign him back to a cheaper deal, saving a couple of million dollars in the process.
That might not seem like a big deal, but the player actively competing with Singleton for his roster spot (Justin Strnad) was signed for $2.6 million on a one-year deal. Denver’s ability find a comparable option to Singleton for considerably less has already been proven this very offseason.
Ideally, this move would be done in conjunction with bringing in a veteran upgrade, like C.J. Mosley or Ja’whaun Bentley, on the cheap, but no matter what, it just makes too much sense to either cut Singleton or re-work his deal to free up cap space.
Cutting Singleton aside, the Broncos will also need to evaluate how confident they are that he will play like the 2022 player they signed to an expensive extension and haven’t seen since. Even when healthy, Singleton hasn’t been that player in either of the last two seasons, but if he his back to that old form, he’s Denver’s best option at linebacker.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
The idea that Singleton is still a non-problematic starter or even the second-best member of the Broncos’ linebacker room right now seems far-fetched.
They should aggressively pursue making another veteran addition to the room, and they should release Singleton to make the addition practically free, if not a cost-cutting move that also makes the roster better.
Justin Strnad
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
Justin Strnad started 2024 as the butt of jokes — a depth linebacker in the league’s worst linebacker room, on a near-minimum deal.
The few fleeting glances Broncos Country saw of Strnad in the starting lineup were laughable, and Exhibit A for any case arguing that Denver had to address their pressing need and upgrade the talent in the room.
Then, Singleton was lost for the season, and Strnad was forced into the starting lineup, and he outperformed any realistic expectations the fanbase had for him.
Justin Strnad has been a true bright spot for Denver's defense since the injury to Alex Singleton.
— Frankie Abbott (@FrankiesFilm) October 17, 2024
(Credit to Zach Allen, DJ Jones, and Malcolm Roach for eating up blockers in the majority of these clips keeping Strnad clean) pic.twitter.com/ML9pabjVkV
Ultimately, the Wake Forest product started eight games for the Broncos and staved off veteran challengers Zach Cunningham and Kwon Alexander while totaling 73 tackles, eight tackles for loss, three sacks, and three pass breakups. The lighter-bodied linebacker was respectable in coverage until the season’s final games and was a much more respectable run-stopper than anticipated, even though it remained a weak point.
His strong showing earned him another one-year deal with the team, but with a salary twice as high as what he had in 2024. Plus, with Singleton’s injury and contract questions still hanging over his future with the team, there’s a healthy chance Strnad beats him out for the No. 2 spot in the room.
Grade: A-
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
How real is the competition for the starting job next to Dre Greenlaw?
When Justin Strnad signed his new deal to stay in Denver, 9News’ Mike Klis reported that the signature came with the understanding that Strnad would have a chance to compete for a starting role in 2025, and it’s safe to say he isn’t coming for Greenlaw’s job.
That said, just because they promised him a shot, doesn’t mean the competition has to wide open, or one where every competitor has an equal opportunity Alex Forsyth was in a very legitimate battle for the starting center job with Luke Wattenberg last season and ultimately wound up barely taking snaps with the first team by the time training camp started.
If Singleton is fully healthy or the Broncos draft a linebacker in the first two rounds, Strnad’s competition for the starting gig will likely be more theater than anything meaningful. But if Singleton isn’t back to his same old self and they don’t make a hefty draft investment, Strnad should have an excellent chance at starting Week 1.
Singleton doesn’t present the highest bar to clear, and that could be especially true after his ACL injury. Plus, Denver doesn’t have any real avenue to acquiring a solid starter at the position outside a top-51 draft pick. If they don’t select a linebacker with one of their first two selections, a hobbled version of Singleton will be the only barrier to Strnad starting, and that’s a battle Strnad should win.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
If the Broncos have any hesitations about Singleton being a quality starter in 2025 — and they should have some — they need to make an investment in the free-agent market as soon as possible.
C.J. Mosley and Ja’whaun Bentley could both be functional starters, and they’re the only veteran options right now who fit that bill. Rather than forcing themselves to rely heavily on Strnad again or gamble on a post-ACL version of their expensive and declining starter at the position, they should purchase an additional insurance option for a couple million dollars.
That way, they don’t have to address the NFL Draft or the post-draft veteran market with desperation.
Drew Sanders
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
This section might be overly flowery and inflated simply because these grades are so largely based in the personal expectations surrounding a highly paid veteran linebacker, or a player coming back from an Achilles injury, or a career special-teamer being thrust into the starting role, etc.
When you see a player struggle to even have a defined position through two seasons in the league, and then that same player suffers an offseason Achilles tear, it’s hard to remain hopeful about that player’s NFL future. Nine times out of 10, that’s a tragedy that ends a career.
Drew Sanders appears to be that 10th case.
Sanders returned late in the season from his Achilles to make an impact on both defense and special teams, though he played just 84 snaps.
Look who it is! Former Razorback Drew Sanders gets a sack after being on the PUP list for most of the season. pic.twitter.com/fyZp6b5iPi
— razorbackHobbs (@razorbackHobbs) December 20, 2024
In that limited time, Sanders notched eight total tackles and a critical sack, along with being the team’s highest-graded special teams player this past season, according to Pro Football Focus.
He’ll still have to earn his roster spot for 2025, but the current depth chart suggests he should be pretty safe there. The bigger challenge for Sanders will be determining whether or not he can demonstrate enough value on either defense or special teams to prolong his NFL career, considering 2026 is the last year of his rookie deal.
Grade: B
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
What is Drew Sanders’ position, and do the Broncos have any sort of confidence in actually playing him there?
Injuries have partially limited the impact Sanders could have during his first two years with the team, but the indecision surrounding his role with the team has arguably been even worse for his development.
After being drafted as an inexperienced linebacker desperate for snaps in this new role, the Broncos didn’t even let him finish his rookie year before deciding to change his position back to edge rusher, where he had struggled mightily as a collegian. Unsurprisingly, after some offseason deliberation, Sanders was moved back to inside linebacker, but he barely got to practice at the position before suffering his Achilles injury.
The indecision represented a frustrating amount of waffling from the staff. Sanders should never have been selected if there wasn’t a clear plan for his development at linebacker.
An immensely gifted recruit, Sanders failed to register more than 1.0 sack after two years at his original position of edge-rusher. It was clear he didn’t have the necessary length or size to thrive on the defensive line. Then, Arkansas moved him to linebacker, and although he was new to the vision and clearly underdeveloped, he had a tremendous season and emerged as arguably the best linebacker prospect in his class.
The catch was, although the talent seems tremendous, it’s going to take a lot of reps to realize that potential. Unfortunately Denver has consistently made choices that rob him of practice reps at his ideal position.
Since his return from injury, it seems like the Broncos have settled on the correct answer of playing Sanders at linebacker, but they’ve already been so wishy-washy that it’s hard to feel confident they won’t lose their patience yet again.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
This summer, the Broncos need to give Sanders as many practice snaps at the position as humanly possible so they can make a quality evaluation on whether or not he’s ready to graduate from his special-teams-only position to challenge Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad for in-game snaps.
Even after tearing his Achilles, Sanders still has a lot of the talent that made Denver covet him in the first place.
Unfortunately, they’re running out of runway to develop and harness those special abilities that Sanders possesses. They’ve already wasted two of their four years, and they can’t afford to waste a second longer.
Maximizing his practice time this offseason will not only give him the best possible chance for success, but it should also bring clarity to the team’s evaluation of Sanders and his future in the Mile High City.
Levelle Bailey
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
As far as rookie campaigns for undrafted free agents go, Levelle Bailey enjoyed a solid NFL debut.
Bailey performed well throughout the summer and earned meaningful playing time during the preseason, where he continued his impressive level of play, which he parlayed into a small regular-season role.
Levelle Bailey 94-yard house call. pic.twitter.com/66gImsyyTk
— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel) August 25, 2024
The Fresno State rookie played only five defensive snaps during the regular season, making almost exclusively a special-teamer, but he still made an impact. PFF graded him as Denver’s best special-teamer with at least 70 snaps played, and the second-best overall, trailing only Sanders.
If you’re going to make it in the NFL as a depth piece at inside linebacker, you have to be a valued special teamer, and Bailey looked the part in year one. Sanders and Strnad also offer special teams prowess, though, so the former Bulldog will face some heated competition for his roster spot.
Nonetheless, that’s a pretty rosy outlook for a second-year UDFA who didn’t make the initial 53-man roster.
Grade: B
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
How do the changes to the starting lineup impact Levelle Bailey’s place in Denver’s linebacker hierarchy?
We’ve already addressed the mysteries concerning the top of the team’s depth chart, but how Drew Sanders and Justin Strnad fit into the team’s defensive lineup will have major implications for Bailey and his future on special teams.
If Alex Singleton earns the starting spot next to Dre Greenlaw, Sanders and Strnad will be relegated back to the special teams roles they’ve thrived in, and Bailey’s roster spot will be in jeopardy. Bailey could certainly win that battle, but it will be a Thunder Dome-esque situation, where three men enter, and only two are allowed to remain on the roster.
However, if Singleton isn’t the same after his injury and the team decides to part ways, either Strnad or Sanders will likely assume his spot on the depth chart. That would allow Bailey to nearly cement a spot as one of the team’s two depth pieces at the position, though any other offseason additions the team makes at the position could complicate that.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
The Broncos should be fairly cutthroat when determining their starting linebacker rotation because they should feel confident in the youth and special teams talent they’ve accumulated in the room.
If Singleton is no longer himself, Denver won’t have to worry about downgrading their special teams unit by promoting either Sanders or Strnad to the starting roster, as Bailey is standing at the ready to fill that void.
On the other hand, even if Singleton remains as one of the team’s best options at the position, they shouldn’t feel pressured to pay him his overinflated salary, because their relative depth at linebacker should allow them the comfort to either re-work Singleton’s deal, or to release him before re-signing him to a more team-friendly agreement.
K.J. Cloyd
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
K.J. Cloyd had a rocky introduction to the NFL in 2024.
After going undrafted in the NFL Draft, Cloyd signed with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent, but was waived on July 25, just before getting to see preseason action. Cloyd signed with the New York Giants two weeks later and wound up leading the Giants in tackles through the three preseason games.
He was initially placed on New York’s practice squad during final roster cuts, but just three days later, he was cut by the G-Men. Cloyd then spent almost the entire rest of the season out of the league before signing onto the Denver Broncos practice squad on December 10.
Ultimately, 2025 was a scary season for Cloyd that almost ended his NFL dream. Yet, he now finds himself on an NFL roster, and the Broncos’ need for linebacker depth means his story isn’t over. If he can have a summer on-par with last year’s preseason showing, he could earn a spot on the practice squad, or maybe even the 53-man roster, even if that outcome isn’t the most likely one.
Grade: D
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
Can he earn a spot on the roster or practice squad?
The Broncos will likely keep four inside linebackers on the active roster, with another hanging around on the practice squad, meaning that Cloyd will have to supplant at least one of the players listed above him just to make the practice squad.
If the Broncos add another linebacker, either in the draft, via the undrafted rookie market, or in the later stages of free agency, Cloyd’s future in Denver will only get murkier. Almost any player the Broncos add will have the inside track on Cloyd, as he’s done nothing so far to give himself a leg up over any new addition.
Unfortunately for him, it would be surprising if the front office kept the linebacker room as-is for the rest of the offseason.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
The Denver Broncos linebacker room remains unsettled, and K.J. Cloyd should not prevent them from settling it.
Now, given the possible moves left on the table, Cloyd likely deserves a shot in OTAs and the early stages of the offseason to prove himself, but that’s about the extent of what the Broncos should do regarding him.
There’s no need to force him off the roster right now, as unearthing a diamond in the rough at the position would do wonders for the defense, but we can also honestly acknowledge how unlikely that outcome is and how it shouldn’t limit any of the team’s options.
