Denver Broncos: Revisiting Draft Pick Keishawn Bierria

As the regular season approaches, we wanted to take an individual look at each of the Denver Broncos 2017 Draft Choices and how they’ve performed in camp.

With the 217th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos selected Washington linebacker Keishawn Bierria. How has Bierria performed in preseason and camp?

Bierria is a part of the logjam at inside linebacker.  At 6′ and 230 pounds, he’s more of the prototype of an inside ‘backer than Josey Jewell.  Jewell, however has earned a spot ahead of Bierria on the depth chart and we have to mention again that the AJ Johnson signing looms over all of the middle linebackers.  Only Todd Davis and Brandon Marshall are “safe” among the middle backers.

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Like draft mate Sam Jones, Bierria made a career at Washington by being able to mask physical limitations with smart, intuitive play.  Unlike Jones, Keishawn’s downside is speed.  Strength can be developed, speed less so and that’s a concern.  Many college players that rely on smarts over physical prowess find the speed of the NFL game insurmountable.  As we mentioned with Troy Fumagalli, Bierria may benefit from a year on Denver’s practice squad.

There are a lot of great inside linebackers in the league.  Many are going to be victims of teams desire to keep only four at the position so there’s not a lot of worry about getting Bierria onto the practice squad.  He should clear waivers and allow Denver to retain him.

Bierria definitely has the ability to become a serviceable NFL linebacker.  His strength and awareness may have him projected even better than that.  For the immediate future, though, his task is to get more adept at the speed of the pro game and learn from the Broncos outstanding linebacking corps.

If his time at Washington is any indication, he will tackle (pun!) the opportunity with abandon.