A year after playing only two games, Josey Jewell not taking football for granted

Just like that, Josey Jewell’s season was over.

The Denver Broncos inside linebacker helped the team get to 2-0 with a win over Jacksonville, and learned shortly after he had torn a pectoral muscle and would be out for the year.

The Broncos went just 5-10 the rest of the way, and it was the longest stretch of his career that Jewell had ever missed. He had started 18 games prior for Denver before the injury.

“It really gave me the understanding of how much I enjoy the game, how much I appreciate the game and maybe took it too much for granted,” Jewell said on Wednesday at offseason Broncos media availability. “It was a good view for me to kind of take a step back for a little bit and see how much I enjoy this game, how much I love it and how long I want to play it for.”

Jewell was a free agent after the season, but Broncos GM George Paton believed in him enough to bring him back on a two-year, $11M contract. He said he missed just one game in college with an AC joint issue, so this injury was tough. The Broncos clearly have faith in Jewell moving forward, just like he did in himself before getting hurt.

“Yeah, I definitely feel like I was playing some of the best ball I’ve played professionally so far,” Jewell said. “But yeah, I’m definitely looking up towards that and trying to better that from what I did last year. Just trying to keep stacking those days and stacking the good games and practices on top of each other.”

Jewell stayed around the Broncos for almost all of last season while he rehabbed the injury. It was a decision that many media members noticed and clearly the front office did as well. He was clearly still a good teammate even after suffering a devastating blow. Jewell talked about how being close to his teammates was important.

“I just wanted to stay around them, depending on what happened the next year (in free agency) and just keeping that relationship with everybody. I know if you get detached from the game for too long you kind of lose some of the IQ stuff or maybe you slack in some way, or you lack somewhere and lose some knowledge. So I just wanted to stay around the game, stay up to date and get to know these guys even more. Keep that relationship and communication going,” Jewell said.

The Broncos didn’t re-sign Kenny Young or Alexander Johnson, so Jewell will be relied upon in a big way to anchor the middle of Denver’s defense in 2022. He said he finally felt 100 percent at the end of February, so the torn pec ended up sidelining him for more than six months.

Jewell and the Broncos are continuing some practices now before the real show begins with training camp at the end of July and then the real fun begins.
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