When Bradley Chubb went down with a season-ending ACL injury earlier this season, the Broncos turned to undrafted rookie Malik Reed. The Nevada product has started the last five games and has performed well.
Reed’s pass-rush numbers don’t jump off the page (he has one sack so far) but the edge defender has played extremely well against the run. Reed has played so well that he made Pro Football Focus’ list of the top-graded rookies midway through the 2019 NFL season.
PFF tracks advanced stats and grades players on a 0-to-100 scale.
“Reed’s bread and butter has been his run defense, as he is 13th at his position in run-defense grade, at 76.5,” wrote PFF’s Anthony Treash.
Reed has totaled 19 tackles this year and has broken up one pass. PFF says the OLB has also generated 17 pressures on pass-rush downs.
Broncos coach Vic Fangio said during his media availability Monday that Reed has a few areas where he can improve in the second half of the season.
“The way he’ll grow is to eliminate mistakes, so-called rookie mistakes,” Fangio said. “Like one time [Sunday] we had a good coverage on and they checked the ball down to the tight end in the flat for about a 12-yard gain. He needed to be on that guy, and he wasn’t. Little things like that.”
If Reed is able to clean up those rookie mistakes, he could remain a key rotational edge defender in Denver’s defense even after Chubb returns.
