Long have fans lamented the Denver Broncos’ inability to cover tight ends. From watching Antonio Gates post 65 yards and at least one touchdown every time the Chargers come up on the schedule, to seeing Travis Kelce take a pass 80 yards for a score — the Broncos have struggled to contain tight ends traditionally.

It hasn’t helped that the AFC West has featured some of the best tight ends of the modern era. If anything, the Divisional armaments at the position helped clarify the onus on the GM John Elway to find the right defensive mind to finally stanch the bleeding.

Vic Fangio has arrived in Denver and with him his trusty long-time assistant Ed Donatell. With their powers combined, the hope is that the Broncos will finally be able to throw something different at opposing tight ends.

Just ask inside linebacker Josey Jewell. According to the second-year ‘backer, Fangio’s scheme and the way he designs coverages will “definitely” help the Broncos better account for the tight end.

“With a bunch of different coverages that he has and the way he disguises things, sometimes a quarterback is not going to know what you’re in and not going to know where to pick on you at,” Jewell said last week during OTAs. “Say you’re in Cover-3 and he thinks you’re in man or something like that. He’s not going to be able to pick it out and know exactly where to go right away and have those quick throws.”

Okay. So we know that disguising the coverage pre-snap should help. Can you be more specific, Josey?

“There are just small tweaks,” Jewell said. “We are still running the same style of defense if you want to say that. There are just different types of coverages, different kinds of drops, different kinds of man alignments and stuff like that. It’s small little tweaks and different communications styles.”

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Communication, in my estimation, has been one of the biggest culprits in the Broncos’ struggles to cover tight ends. Fangio is a strident champion of communication, and it should trickle down to affect positively the Broncos at every level of the defense.

We won’t know exactly how Fangio’s scheme will help the Broncos account for the tight end better until we see them out on the grass. One thing is certain, though; Todd Davis and Josey Jewell are not the fastest linebackers, which means that Fangio will have to overcome that slight deficiency with scheme.

However, they're both big 'effort' linebackers with unceasing motors. Color me optimistic that it’ll pan out for the Broncos in 2019. As I wrote last week, I like Jewell's odds of becoming a stud linebacker in Fangio's defense.

Everywhere Fangio has gone, he's elevated the off-ball linebacker talent he inherited on the roster. Jewell no longer has the rookie jitters, which I believe will be another reason he'll look like a new man out on the grid-iron this year.

“It’s Year 2 and I feel a little more relaxed," Jewell said. "Not in the relaxed sense of, ‘I’m here, I’ve arrived,’ or anything like that. The relaxed sense that now I just play football. Last year, I felt a little tense and I wasn’t sure what to do coming in as a rookie. I definitely now understand the role and understand what to do. Being around it a year, I feel a lot more comfortable with everything.”