Arguably most talented position group on the entire Denver Broncos roster is their defensive line.
Headlined by D.J. Jones and Dre’Mont Jones, and bolstered by DeShawn Williams, Mike Purcell, McTelvin Agim and two highly talented rookies, it should have waves of players that can harass the quarterback at a high level, and that’s led to them adopting a nickname — ‘The Darkside’.
“I feel like [the Darkside] will come out in our play,” D.J. Jones told the media after the Denver Broncos practiced on Tuesday. “It’s something that [Defensive Line] Coach [Marcus] Dixon created for our defensive unit, mainly the d-line. It’s something we break down [with] and something we live by now. You have to go into a dark place when you step onto that field, so it’s Darkside forever.”
According to Jones, embracing the dark side is a necessity when working in the trenches of the gridiron.
“Some people like to go onto the field happy-go-lucky and cool, but we’re in the trenches,” Jones said. “It’s not pretty down there. You don’t know what you’re going to get. You might get 40 double teams in a game. You have to go somewhere where you know you’re going to defeat those double teams. Your mind has to be somewhere where you’ve never been all week and you have to prepare yourself for a battle. Every Sunday, Monday, Thursday or whenever they decide they want to put the ball down, you have to go to a dark place.”
Fortunately for the Denver Broncos, that ‘Darkside’ unit will be getting some fresh blood with rookie Eyioma Uwazurike and Matt Henningsen impressing in their preseason debut.
“They did a great job along with everyone else that played,” Jones said of the first-year players. “But those two guys—to be rookies, they caught onto the playbook really fast. They’re very physical and they want to learn, so that’s all that matters.”
Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert better have their heads on a swivel, or the darkness will envelop them.
