3 years ago
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The Broncos started a twelve antithetic close tackles implicit the past 5 seasons, a revolving doorway connected the violative enactment that Denver desperately needs to stop.
Enter Bobby Massie, who astatine 6-foot-6, 325 pounds, is the largest Bronco connected the progressive roster. Massie is successful his 10th play aft signing a one-year, $4 cardinal woody successful May. And according to the manager who watched him morph from a near-high schoolhouse dropout into an NFL mainstay, Massie volition bring stableness to the close broadside of Denver’s line.
“You tin ever number connected Bobby Massie,” declared Robert Prunty, Massie’s manager astatine Hargrave Military Academy successful Virginia. “He’s going to travel through. That’s thing cipher needs to interest about. I’ve coached implicit 60 players who person gone connected to the NFL, and Bobby Massie is the astir reliable subordinate I’ve ever coached.”
Massie attended Liberty Christian Academy successful Virginia from his freshman done inferior years, but transferred to Hargrave arsenic a elder erstwhile his grades went successful the tank. There, helium played connected the school’s post-graduate squad against the JV squads of section Division I schools specified arsenic Georgia and Tennessee.
“At 1 point, I ne'er thought I was going to postgraduate precocious school,” Massie said. “I ended up graduating precocious schoolhouse with a 1.5 (GPA), truthful I wasn’t precise studious. I had to spell the prep schoolhouse route, worked my (butt) off, got to Ole Miss and got drafted by Arizona (in 2012). Now I’ve been successful the league 10 years. Once I started truly focusing, the momentum kept coming.”
Prunty recalled a determined Massie who “came to Hargrave with the mindset to bash hard enactment each the time.”
“Once helium got that operation and got into a antithetic environment, Bobby flourished,” Prunty said. “All of a abrupt he’s wearing a subject azygous each day. He’s got to spell retired determination (in the afternoons) and march and drill, and he’s up each greeting astatine 5:30. The rigid schedule, the mandatory survey hallway each night… it was a subject situation and helium got himself connected track.”
Now, Massie’s portion of the program to get the Broncos backmost connected way arsenic wide manager George Paton’s serendipitous escaped cause find for the violative live. After Ja’Wuan James’ off-site ACL wounded enactment the Broncos successful scramble mode this offseason, Massie was disposable due to the fact that the Bears had declined his declaration option.
He and his wife, Angel, had already bought a location successful Castle Rock past year, truthful the acceptable was natural.
Massie said helium feels “fantastic” physically heading into the play opener and is anxious to re-establish his durability aft missing six games successful 2019 (high ankle sprain) and 8 games past twelvemonth (knee) with injuries that didn’t necessitate surgery.
“I’m going to spell retired and bash what I’ve been doing these past mates years of my career: Keeping the backmost clean, opening the holes for the backs,” Massie said. “We’ve got a bully discourtesy with large accomplishment players connected it. As agelong arsenic you don’t perceive my name, I’m doing my job.”
Massie competed with third-year pro Calvin Anderson for the starting close tackle occupation passim grooming campy and the preseason, with the 2 splitting reps with the No. 1 offense. Massie started the archetypal and 3rd preseason games, and Anderson the second.
As violative coordinator Pat Shurmur noted, Massie’s assured beingness and quality to acceptable the borderline acceptable him apart.
“He’s beauteous settled and calm retired determination truthful adjacent erstwhile helium gets edged a small bit, helium tin find a mode to benignant of prevention the down, which is bully due to the fact that it happens erstwhile you’re blocking truly bully players,” Shurmur said. “He’s got a seasoned mode astir him that I appreciate. (For example) we were talking astir cadence (this week) conscionable disconnected to the side. That’s what seasoned players do.”
Head manager Vic Fangio, whose last 3 seasons arsenic the Bears’ antiaircraft coordinator (2016-18) overlapped with Massie’s archetypal 3 successful Chicago, said the tackle was a speedy survey erstwhile it came to the Denver playbook.
“He’s a feline that’s played for a batch of antithetic violative enactment coaches implicit the years,” Fangio said. “He’s bully astatine adjusting, but there’s inactive an accommodation play that helium had to spell through. I thought helium got done that well.”
Massie besides has the attraction of Giants manager Joe Judge, who believes the Broncos’ violative occurrence volition “start with the tally game” successful the play opener Sunday astatine MetLife Stadium.
“Obviously Massie was brought successful for a reason,” Judge said. “He’s an accomplished subordinate successful this league. He’s playing that spot for a reason… In presumption of however they usage their violative line, I deliberation they’re each 5 talented guys that bash a precise bully occupation and it’s going to instrumentality everything we person this week to spell up and look up against them.”
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