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Jonathon Cooper cracks Broncos’ two-deep after overcoming medical concerns in offseason

Ryan Williamson

By Ryan Williamson

Published:

After falling in this year’s NFL Draft due to health concerns, Jonathon Cooper’s chances at becoming a consistent NFL player looked like they were decreasing.

But since being drafted in the final round by the Broncos, Cooper has taken his chance and ran with it. He’s impressed the Denver coaches and players so far and enough so that he was listed as the backup outside linebacker for the Broncos in the team’s most recent depth chart.

At the top of the outside linebacker depth chart for the Broncos is an obvious choice in Bradley Chubb. The No. 5 overall pick in 2018 is in his fourth NFL season and already has more than 20 sacks in his NFL career.

Behind Chubb now is Cooper. Previously, it was Derrek Tuszka, who was a seventh-round pick for the Broncos in the 2020 NFL Draft after a successful career at North Dakota State.

Cooper’s story is pretty inspirational if you haven’t heard it. The former Buckeye has dealt with heart issues for most of his life, including after the draft when he had three eight-hour procedures done on his heart to help restore a regular beat. Those concerns caused him to fall down draft boards earlier this offseason.

So far, that fall seems to have worked out just fine for Cooper as it’s looking more and more like he’ll be a part of the Broncos’ defense in 2021 and beyond.

Ryan Williamson