So it certainly appears that Mark Barron is headed to the Denver Broncos.
A season-ending wrist injury to rookie Justin Strnad forced the Broncos to meet with the NFL veteran earlier this week. Barron, 30, was most recently with the Pittsburgh Steelers before becoming a salary cap casualty.
Barron was a first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2012 NFL draft and is a converted safety.
Since it appears the Broncos and Barron will agree to a deal, what does he bring to Denver’s defense?
On Friday’s Broncos Country Tonight, our Jeff Essary joined Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Allbright to talk about whether Barron is a possible solution for the Broncos.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Essary said. “I was actually just going back and looking through some of his tape over the last day or two, and he feels like a player without much of a position. He came into the league as a safety and was drafted really high in the first round by Tampa Bay and then that wasn’t working out so he went to the (Los Angeles) Rams. If you look at just the stat sheet, his best numbers really came from 2015 and 2016 before Wade Phillips got there.
“I really don’t know what to feel about it yet. If it happens that he ends coming to the Broncos, I think it obviously helps from a depth perspective. He gives you more athleticism than a Josey Jewell does. It’s kind of a mixed bag on a guy like Baron who has played pretty poorly over the last couple of years. But maybe you get him in and get him some coaching and get him a system that really clicks with him and maybe he can turn it around.”