Broncos roster 2015: Marvin Austin Jr.

A day-by-day Broncos player breakdown is something we've been doing since our days at BroncoTalk nearly a decade ago. This year the tradition continues as we look at the Denver Broncos roster heading into the 2015 season in our 90-in-90 series.

Name: Marvin Austin, Jr.
Position: Nose Tackle
Height: 6' 2"   Weight: 312 
Age: 26   Experience: 5th Season
College: North Carolina

You will have a hard time finding an example of a player still in the league after five seasons who has seen so little of the game-day field, yet still is giving his everything to make an impact for his team.

Austin came into the league in 2011 and was drafted by the NY Giants. Since then he's had a stint with Miami and Dallas before donning our beloved orange and blue. His path has been plagued with injuries all along the way. He's suffered a torn pectoral muscle in his rookie season, was released not a month after joining Miami in 2013, and injured his back later in the year with Dallas.

He's a very talented player who has the size and burst to be an impact player on the interior of our defensive line. The question is and has always been with him, "Can he stay healthy?" Last year was a great encouragement for both him and his fans as he completed the season without any glaring problems or further injuries. He registered 15 tackles and 5 assists in 2015 in a rotational role at DT.

The good:

Austin has all the talent in the world to be a force at NT in the Wade Phillips 3-4 scheme. He can penetrate or 2-gap and definitely has the potential to take the starting spot in training camp. He wouldn't be a liability in either the pass or run game. With a decent rotation to keep him fresh, I can see his game being akin to what we saw from Terrance Knighton circa 2013.

The other big positive here is that he's playing at a position of little depth. His presence even as a back up has a large amount of value to our team.

The bad:

There will not be a time where his injury history won't be in the back of the coach's minds as the season progresses and that may impact his ability to take the starting role. I, unfortunately, wouldn't blame the coaches one bit for this. He definitely has been putting in the work to get right and it was very evident last year. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for Austin as we get closer to the start of the season.

Roster status:

Marvin Austin Jr. will be competing for the starting nose tackle position with former first-round pick Sylvester Williams. If Austin loses that battle he will more than likely be main backup to Williams.