Devon Key hit a major milestone on Aug. 27.
That it passed with such little notice is a sign of the unsentimental reality of the NFL, sure, but also a nod to his progress.
The Broncos safety cracked the 53-man roster and appeared to do so without much drama.
He may have felt a tinge of anxiety in the lead-up to the Tuesday roster cutdown — who would blame him, after being waived at the deadline by Kansas City in 2021 and 2022 and Denver last year — but the preseason made it clear the Broncos are counting on Key this fall.
Key had a boatload of starter reps during training camp while Brandon Jones missed multiple weeks with a hamstring injury. Even if Jones is back to full speed and full work for Week 1 at Seattle, Key figures to be the first man off the bench in Denver’s revamped safety room and a special teams regular.
“It’s been steady growth throughout my time in the league,” Key told The Denver Post recently. “Just sitting down with (defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) and a few of the coaches, they’ve instilled belief in me and told me to just believe in myself and go out there and play to the best of my ability and everything will handle itself.”
The Broncos overhauled the back of their secondary this offseason, releasing Justin Simmons in March and Caden Sterns in the middle of training camp. That leaves Jones and P.J. Locke as the starting pair and Key, JL Skinner and Keidron Smith as the trio behind.
Key, at 13 career special teams snaps, has the most NFL experience among those three. Skinner played exactly one defensive snap a year ago, plus nine on special teams. Smith joined Denver’s practice squad late in the season and has yet to make a regular-season appearance in the NFL.
Yet head coach Sean Payton, Joseph and secondary coach Jim Leonhard felt comfortable leaving the depth in the room to this group. And Key is a big reason.
“He’s super smart,” Joseph said. “Even last year when you watched him practice, you could see he had it. It was just a lack of time on task. He’s been consistent throughout camp with tackling, making calls. His coverage stuff has been excellent.”
This is not the typical NFL career arc, but it’s not unheard of either. In fact, Locke followed something of a similar track. He played more special teams than Key in his first years in the league, but it took time before he had the right combination of readiness and then opportunity to show he could play at a starting-caliber level.
That, Joseph said, is not a coincidence.
“I think safety is a spot, inside ‘backer is a spot where you can grow young guys from being practice squad guys to being starters moving forward,” he said. “It’s a spot that takes intelligence and processing. (Key) has those two things. It’s been fun to watch him play, and he’s been clean all preseason.”
Key probably didn’t know in January when he signed a futures contract just how much the path would clear. Then Simmons was gone. Then in August, so was Sterns.
“Caden and J-Simms taught me a lot,” he said. “Just coming in a couple of years ago, they really helped me be part of the team and one of the guys. I credit them all the time. Once they got released, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to step up because there could be opportunity.’”
He’d been preparing for it longer than that, though. Life on the practice squad means being on scout team and giving the Denver offense looks based on that week’s opponent, but also trying to get your own system down in case you’re needed.
“You’ve just got to stay locked into doing your job,” Key said. “Like, yeah you’re looking at a (opponent’s play) card, but if it’s man-to-man, be the best in man-to-man. If it’s Cover 2, same. Don’t ever lose track of what our system is, even though you’re running someone else’s system.”
Key didn’t, and now he’s made a 53-man roster. The next opportunity likely isn’t far down the road.
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Originally Published: September 2, 2024 at 5:45 a.m.
