Ja’Quan McMillian knows all about pressure.
Try lining up across from future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce on a third down at Arrowhead Stadium, knowing Patrick Mahomes is likely to look your way.
Try seeing a quick-hitter develop and having to tackle Davante Adams or J.K. Dobbins in space, with a blocker between you and not much help behind.
Try doing all of that while communicating with both the safety behind you and the corner to your left or right in a couple of seconds between an offense getting set and the ball getting snapped.
That’s life as a nickel in the NFL. In today’s game, it’s a premium position and a unique one at the same time.
McMillian played outside in college at East Carolina but took to the slot when he was thrust into the Broncos’ starting lineup early in the 2023 season. He’s been an instinctive playmaker and steady presence there for defensive coordinator Vance Joseph ever since.
Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, though, and now the 2022 undrafted free agent faces a new kind of pressure this summer. The kind that comes when a team spends a first-round draft pick on a guy who plays your position.
That’s what happened in April when the Broncos selected Jahdae Barron with the No. 20 overall pick.
McMillian, however, insisted on Friday that he’s excited about Barron’s addition and the already brewing competition.
“Of course, you take it as a challenge, but this is what we’re here for,” McMillian told The Denver Post after Denver’s first open practice of training camp. “It makes me better, it makes him better. We learn from each other. I’ve tried to teach him the ropes and some things that he knows that maybe I don’t, I try to learn from him.
“It’s part of the game and I’m bringing him in like he’s one of the guys I’ve been playing with. We’re going to keep getting better and keep learning with each other and hopefully we keep this thing rolling and win some games together.”
This is shaping up to be one of the best position battles of training camp for the Broncos, but it’s not quite as simple as Barron vs. McMillian for the nickel job. Denver’s got several players who can operate inside or out. That means the next few weeks will feature several combinations and different guys in different places around reigning defensive player of the year Pat Surtain II.
“There are a handful of guys that are going to dual train and there’s a handful that would be outside,” head coach Sean Payton said Friday. “Every once in a while, you have a corner that can go to safety. There’s a vision with each player relative to where we see him at.
“The flexibility certainly helps, especially on third down.”
McMillian and Barron both fit that bill. When cornerback Riley Moss injured his knee late in the 2024 season, Denver initially deployed McMillian outside in its base defense and then slid him to the slot in nickel.
Barron, meanwhile, played all over the field at Texas. Like McMillian and Moss, he’s getting reps at multiple positions already.
“He’s a smart player, so we’re not going to add too much (to his plate) if we feel like that’s a problem,” Payton said of Barron. “We see him starting off competing inside, but he has the flexibility to go out.”
That’s essentially the way McMillian’s seen his role take shape over the past two seasons, too. Then there’s Moss, who played well enough in his first full year as a starter that he’s likely to figure prominently in Joseph’s defensive plans. Perhaps what’s shaping up is a three-man race for two spots in standard alignments.
“It’s a good thing that we have so many guys that can play inside and out,” McMillian said. “Riley can play nickel, Jahdae can play inside and out, Pat can play anywhere. I can play inside and out. (Kris Abrams-Draine), too. There’s a lot of things you can do as a defense and a lot of different play calls to mix the offense up. It’s a great thing.”
The Broncos appeared to have one of the best trios in football at times in 2024. But the injury to Moss and a couple of scares for Surtain — including a Week 6 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers that he missed due to a concussion — showed Payton, Joseph and company that they didn’t have as much depth as they thought.
Then Abrams-Draine played well in hot spots down the stretch, the team drafted Barron, and suddenly this looks like a position group armed with an embarrassment of riches.
“It’s cool to see, like, the difference in all these guys rotating, because I mean — we’re deep, there,” wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. told The Post on Friday. “We’re ridiculously deep at that position. So, just to see those guys and the different things they do and how they learn from each other, I think that’s the biggest thing. I mean, Riley will do some stuff now that he didn’t really do last year and the year before that. And J-Mac’s more fluid in his movements.”
All of that depth and versatility help protect the Broncos against injury going forward, but it also gives Joseph the chance to get creative in how he deploys personnel. That’s particularly so because McMillian, Barron and Moss are all good tacklers in addition to the coverage elements of their games.
That leaves room for one of Joseph’s greatest strengths as a coordinator: Taking particular players’ strengths and figuring out how to put them in position to accentuate them on the field.
“I can tell Coach V.J.’s excited,” McMillian said. “We added to the room and we’ve got a lot of pieces. Everybody knows we’ve got a lot of pieces. And I think it’s just about getting better. We want to learn every position on the field — even sometimes in certain packages, I’m considered a safety. It’s a great thing.
“He’s excited and he can do a lot with us.”
McMillian’s excited, too, even though he’s at the center of one of the hottest battles in training camp.
If he feels burned or frustrated by Barron’s arrival, he certainly doesn’t let on.
The nature of his position doesn’t allow for self-doubt or wallowing. Fall down in coverage? Better get your hands on the ball next time. Give up a couple of third-down conversions? There’s a screen to blow up coming right around the corner.
“Through ups and downs, I’m the same guy — that’s what I try to be, anyway,” McMillian said. “No matter the situation, I’m the same guy. It’s the NFL. I’m not going to be perfect, I’m not going to win every rep. Knowing that, I’m always (level). … My confidence is never low — even when you get a bad play or a bad game. And I don’t even necessarily think I’ve had bad games. Just bad plays.
“We’ve got the next-play mentality here and I just keep pushing.”
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