Tag: essang bassey

Panthers waive Lamar Jackson; Commanders sign ex-Broncos linebacker

Lamar Jackson (not that one) was waived by the Panthers. Another former Broncos defender was picked up by the Commanders.

A pair of former Denver Broncos defenders made headlines on Monday.

Lamar Jackson (not that one) was waived by the Carolina Panthers with an injury designation. If he clears waivers, Jackson will revert to Carolina’s injured reserve list.

Jackson, 26, played cornerback for the Broncos in 2022, breaking up two passes in three games. He was waived during free agency in 2023 and later joined the Panthers’ practice squad.

Elsewhere, the Washington Commanders signed ex-Denver linebacker Justin Hollins. Hollins, 28, was picked by the Broncos in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL draft out of Oregon. He was waived during roster cuts in 2020 and landed with the Los Angeles Rams. Hollins spent time with three other teams after the Rams before joining the Commanders this week.

To wrap up, we have two more bits of housekeeping on ex-Denver players: safety Caden Sterns received $1.055 million from the Panthers and cornerback Essang Bassey got $1.125 million from the Detroit Lions.

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Lions sign former Broncos cornerback

The Lions signed former Broncos cornerback Essang Bassey.

The Detroit Lions have signed former Denver Broncos cornerback Essang Bassey, the team announced Tuesday.

Bassey, 26, entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest with the Broncos in 2020. He dressed for 12 games as a rookie and made three fill-in starts at cornerback, totaling 23 tackles, two pass breakups, one interception and one fumble recovery.

After being cut by Denver in 2021, Bassey was picked up by the Los Angeles Chargers. He returned to the Broncos in 2022 and remained with the team until being released two months into the 2023 campaign. Bassey then returned to the Chargers for the remainder of last season.

Bassey became a free agent this spring and now lands in Detroit after five months on the market. He joins the Lions with 60 tackles, seven pass breakups, and one interception on his resume. Bassey has played in 43 career games with five starts. He played 210 snaps in 11 games in Los Angeles last fall.

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Lions add veteran CB, waive rookie LB DaRon Gilbert with injury

Injuries continue to force the Lions to shuffle the roster, adding veteran slot CB Essang Bassey

Injuries have claimed another spot on the Detroit Lions roster, and the team went out and filled it with a player who can help cover injury issues at a different spot.

First, the bad news. Undrafted rookie linebacker DaRon Gilbert, a Detroit native, has been waived with injury designation. Gilbert was injured in the preseason loss to the Giants and has not practiced since Saturday’s game.

Gilbert had shown real potential as he continued his transformation from college safety at Lafayette to linebacker at Northern Illinois and then the Lions. The Detroit Brother Rice alum was a very good candidate for the team’s practice squad in 2024.

Replacing Gilbert on the roster is veteran cornerback Essang Bassey. A 26-year-old who played collegiately at Wake Forest, Bassey has spent time with the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers since entering the NFL in 2020. He’s actually had multiple stints with each team, starting one game for both in 2023. The 5-foot-10 Bassey has primarily played as a slot corner and has considerable special teams coverage experience.

Chargers’ Derwin James has snaps significantly reduced vs. Bills

The future role of Derwin James is one the biggest questions.

Chargers safety Derwin James had a reduced role against the Bills.

With a large majority of snaps that took place at slot corner and near the box, James played the fewest snaps of his career, excluding injuries/ejections. 41 snaps was the fewest played for the former All-Pro in a game since he was ejected against the Colts.

Earlier in the week, interim head coach Giff Smith did talk about potential changes to Brandon Staley’s defense. On Tuesday, Smith did hint at personnel changes:

We’re going to put the best guys out there in the best position to have the opportunity to stop Buffalo and give us a chance to win.

James played over 50% of his 41 snaps at slot corner specifically. It’s the continuation of a gradual trend of having him play fewer of the deep aspects of the safety position, effectively limiting him to the box. James also registered his third consecutive game with a PFF grade lower than 45.0.

Notably, he was on the sideline on a 3rd and 8 play when Essang Bassey was playing the slot against Stefon Diggs. The Bills would convert against Bassey and effectively ice the game from there.

The firings of Tom Telesco and Staley will produce a domino effect of roster decisions going forward. One has to wonder where that leaves James in the shuffle if his snaps were immediately reduced the game after Staley’s ouster. Not to mention, is James comfortable with a slot majority role? The constant changes in his role this year are not something generally seen with the highest-paid players at their respective positions leaguewide.

From the Chargers’ standpoint, is it worth it to pay James as the most expensive safety in the league when they’re no longer using him as the Swiss Army Knife-esque key to their defense anymore?

New Chargers leadership will have many questions to answer, but the future role of James remains perhaps the biggest question regarding defensive roster construction.

Ja’Quan McMillian continues to shine in the slot for Broncos

The Broncos seem to have found another gem in cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian.

The Denver Broncos made a surprising move on Oct. 3 when they cut Essang Bassey. It was a surprise at the time because Bassey had been the team’s slot cornerback through the first three games of the season, playing in nickel packages.

After seeing the performance of Bassey’s replacement, the decision is no surprise in hindsight.

Ja’Quan McMillian has been playing in the slot since Week 4 and he has impressed. McMillian’s in-season rise was no surprise to defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

“He had a great spring, so I’m not surprised that he’s playing so well right now in the fall,” Joseph said on Oct. 19. “He’s a young guy who’s open-minded. He takes coaching every day. He’s the same guy every day. He works hard. He can tackle, and he can cover.

“He’s a perfect nickel profile for this defense. He’s improving every single day. His communication is getting better, and his confidence is getting better. The more he’s played, he’s improved, so that’s the key for him. It’s been fun to watch him play and play well.”

McMillian made his NFL debut in Denver’s season finale last year and he played well and should have been awarded an interception. He grabbed his first official interception in a 24-9 upset win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 8.

“I think he’s starting to play confidently,” Broncos safety Justin Simmons said of McMillian after the Chiefs game. “Any time you can go out there and play confidently, you play faster and things slow down for you. He’s getting into a rhythm and a flow, and his preparation in terms of his film study throughout the week and asking questions.

“I think he does such a good job of feeling what the offense is trying to give him and how they’re trying to set it up. …  I think ‘J-Mac’ just did a good job kind of playing what he was seeing and playing confidently and playing fast.”

McMillian, 23, has totaled 23 tackles (including five behind the line of scrimmage), two pass breakups and one interception through five games in the slot. McMillian has emerged as a key member of the secondary and it looks like the slot cornerback job could be locked up for the foreseeable future.

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5 changes that turned the Broncos’ defense around

How did Vance Joseph fix the Broncos’ defense? These five changes were crucial.

Four games into the 2023 season, the Denver Broncos had a historically bad defense, leading many fans and pundits to call for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph to be fired.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton stuck with Joseph, though, giving him time to turn things around. Payton’s patience in Joseph has seemingly paid off as Denver’s defense has turned a corner in recent weeks.

After being blasted by the Miami Dolphins 70-20 in Week 3, Denver’s defense had another poor showing against the Chicago Bears in Week 4, but the Broncos did manage to win that game 31-28. The Broncos allowed 31 points again the following week in a 31-21 loss to the New York Jets.

Since that Jets game, Denver’s defense has allowed 19, 17 and 9 points over the last three weeks, and two of those games were against the Kansas City Chiefs. So what changed on defense? How did the Broncos go from allowing 70 points in Miami to allowing just 9 points to Kansas City?

We don’t know the ins and outs of Denver’s scheme, but it’s easy to track personnel changes. Here’s a quick look at five big changes that have turned the Broncos’ defense around.

Chargers claim CB Essang Bassey

The Chargers added a cornerback in wake of J.C. Jackson being traded to the Patriots.

In wake of trading J.C. Jackson to the Patriots, the Chargers claimed Essang Bassey off waivers from the Broncos.

In correspondence, Los Angeles waived defensive tackle Christopher Hinton.

Bassey has played with the Bolts before, appearing in one game and amassing a tackle in the 2021 season.

Bassey began his professional career in 2020 with Denver as an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest.

In 31 career games with the Broncos, Bassey made four starts and totaled 46 tackles, an interception, four tackles for loss, four passes defended and a fumble recovery.

Broncos made several roster moves this week

The Broncos will make several moves this week: Tre’Quan Smith and Dwayne Washington are in. Randy Gregory and Essang Bassey are out.

Story update: Before the Randy Gregory release became official, the team instead traded him to the 49ers for a late-round draft pick. See our original post below. 

The Denver Broncos have had a busy week of transactions.

The moves started Tuesday when the team signed wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith to the practice squad and released receiver Michael Bandy to make room for him. Denver also waived cornerback Essang Bassey on Tuesday.

After that, the Broncos promoted running back Dwayne Washington from the practice squad to the 53-man roster, then they re-signed Bandy to the practice squad on Wednesday.

Denver also plans to release outside linebacker Randy Gregory, but that move is not official at the time of publication.

Additionally, Denver designated pass rusher Baron Browning safety P.J. Locke to return to practice, opening a 21-day window for both players to return to the active roster.

More roster moves might be on the way later this week as offensive tackle Alex Palczewski (hand) and cornerback K’Waun Williams (ankle) are also eligible to return from injured reserve.

If any players are activated from IR or the PUP list to the 53-man roster, the Broncos will have to make corresponding moves to make room for them. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at the roster moves the club made between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Broncos stock up/down: Risers and fallers after final preseason game

Albert Okwuegbunam headlines the list of Broncos players with rising stock following the team’s preseason finale.

The Denver Broncos finally secured a win on Saturday night, a 41-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Rams in the final preseason game. Although it won’t show up in the official standings, it marked head coach Sean Payton’s first win as Broncos head coach. Today, we take a look at five stocks that went up through the game (no stock down this week).

5 takeaways from Broncos’ 41-0 drubbing of Rams

Here are our takeaways from the Broncos’ win over the Rams on Saturday.

The Denver Broncos finally won their first game in 230 days with a 41-0 blowout of the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday. The victory gave head coach Sean Payton his first win as a Bronco, which is a nice milestone to achieve, especially in front of a home crowd. Today, we look at five takeaways from the win.