"He's a unique player," Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods said. "You can see his natural instincts in the box. When he's in the box, he fits the run like a linebacker. Right now, you can see that — you can see it's easy for him. We're just really spending a lot of time teaching him how to play off the ball, playing the deep safety position.

"But I think he's going to really help us in terms of what we're able to do with our sub-packages. I think there's a few things, actually, that we can do that we couldn't do last year."

So, is Cravens the missing piece that can help the Broncos solve their woes covering tight ends last year?

"Part of it," Woods said. "We're going to have to do it with safeties, with linebackers, with dime[-package players]. But he's definitely a big part of it."

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Just days after Head Coach Vance Joseph said he was proud of 's development, Musgrave provided a specific example of where the third-year player has improved.

"Paxton's growing every day," Musgrave said. "He's learning more about football, learning more about defense. He's learning more about the way that he can be effective at this level of football, which is completely different than college and a world apart from high school. So he's going through the process and, shoot, he had another good day today.