Following the Alex Singleton injury last week, Cody Barton became the new play-caller with the “green dot” on defense and Justin Strnad stepped into a starting role, filling Singleton’s old position.
The new starting duo had a brilliant performance against the New York Jets on Sunday. Barton played all 74 snaps, totaling a team-high 10 tackles. Strnad played 57 snaps, recording four tackles (including two behind the line of scrimmage) and a sack in Denver’s 10-9 win.
“Those guys stepped up,” coach Sean Payton said Monday. “It’s always difficult when you lose someone who’s been as productive and certainly one of the team leaders. [I] was proud of the way those young guys played.”
Singleton was the team’s leading tackler before his injury. The Broncos are not going to exactly replicate Singleton’s performance, but Strnad and Barton did an excellent job filling in.
“I mean, obviously, you’re going to always miss Alex,” defensive lineman Zach Allen said Sunday. “Alex is Alex, but today, I think Cody and Justin did an incredible job. Cody’s obviously played a lot of ball in this league at a high level. So, it was a pretty good transition. Calls were coming out clean, communication was good and I can’t even really think of any real missed assignments. So, it’s a real credit to Cody. Then Justin too, to come in like that, it was awesome and we’re really proud of him.”
Before this fall, Strnad had played two straight seasons exclusively on special teams. He transitioned well from not playing at all to starting in Week 4, and he seems likely to keep the starting job going into Week 5.
