Broncos roster 2016: Outside linebacker Dwayne Norman

It's that time of the year again. Mile High Report begins our annual 90 players in 90 days roster breakdown. Last year went fairly well, but starting today and through August 27th, we'll break down every player on the Denver Broncos roster.

Dwayne Norman is an undrafted rookie linebacker out of Duke who is a long shot to make the Denver Broncos roster, even with the practice squad expansion set this year. Still, he has an opportunity to make a splash during training camp to catch on for this season.

Norman played safety mostly in college until 2015, when he made the switch to linebacker. That tweener status likely hurt his draft stock and he may end up projecting as a safety on the Broncos roster. His size suggests that he won’t project well at a linebacker position either.

The good

He switched positions and played well regardless. That is tough to do at any level, but especially once you get to collegiate football. He recorded four sacks and an interception playing outside linebacker over the last two seasons.

The bad

I can’t seem to project him at any position on the team. He’s too small for linebacker and too slow for safety. That doesn’t bode well for him and as I said earlier, he’ll need to have an outstanding camp to catch on long term.

Quotable

Norman enjoyed his transition from safety to linebacker, because he loves to put the contact on opposing players.

“A lot of players wouldn’t like hitting somebody every play, but it’s something a linebacker has to love,” Norman said. “I’m a player who seeks contact so I liked it, and I think that’s why the transition to linebacker was so successful.”

Roster status

Norman has a mountain to climb over the next two months. It’s probably the tallest mountain in his professional life he’s ever faced. As I’ve said over and over in this post, Norman is going to have to an outstanding camp each and every day if he is going to sniff even the practice squad. I wish him the best of luck.