Iowa football: Josey Jewell hopes to prove Vic Fangio right

Josey Jewell is in line to start this year. After not drafting an ILB in 2019, it’s time for the former Iowa football player to prove Vic Fangio right.

Josey Jewell is one of the most decorated linebackers to ever come through the Iowa football program, but due to speed and athleticism concerns, he fell to the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, where he was happily snatched up by the Denver Broncos.

Jewell fit the bill for the Denver was looking for in the 2018 NFL Draft: hard working, high character guys who could play.

Although Denver already had two starting inside linebackers, it was only a matter of time before Jewell locked down the starting role due to injuries and general ineffectiveness, and he had an up and down season, to say the least.

He started 9 of 16 games, and he totaled 58 tackles with 4 of those coming behind the line of scrimmage, but the issues that caused him to drop to the 4th round, were issues that arose during the season as well.

At times, he was overmatched in coverage (as were all Denver Broncos inside linebackers to be fair), and according to Pro Football Focus, he posted just a 52.6 coverage grade, barely above replacement level. His run defense, however, was a solid 72.2.

With the hiring of former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio as the new head coach, it was anticipated that the Broncos would try to address the inside linebacker position through free agency or early in the draft, and for a second, it looked like it was going that way. Until a trade was reached with Pittsburgh, Denver was going to take Michigan linebacker Devin Bush.

See, Fangio’s defense relies on linebackers who can excel in coverage like former Bronco Danny Trevathan. Denver’s current inside linebacker group consists of arguably two of the worst coverage linebackers in Josey Jewell and Todd Davis.

Either way, they opted against it and managed to land another Iowa football player in Noah Fant (that’s some weird irony right there). They also passed on inside linebacker with both of their second-round picks their third-round pick and all picks on day three besides.

If that’s not a vote of confidence in the second year linebacker who hails from the Iowa football program, I don’t know what is.

The Denver Broncos basically said “we believe in you”, and now it’s Jewell’s time to shine.

My prediction for Jewell this year is that he starts all 16 games and has 115 tackles in the new defensive scheme with one interception and one sack. I don’t think his coverage skills will be much better, but I do believe Ed Donatello will do a better job of hiding them through the use of Denver’s dimebackers than Joe Woods did last year.