ENGLEWOOD — The Broncos drafted Jahdae Barron with the vision to slowly develop the first-rounder into a starting-caliber NFL cornerback.

“My biggest concern with young corners is no different than young quarterbacks. If you play them too soon, and they have a lot of failure with live (playing) time, some guys don’t recover from that,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said last month on The Schrager Hour podcast. “My vision for (Barron) was to kind of bleed him in slow, and to create the failures in practice, not in games. So he can grow from those.”

Barron, the No. 20 overall pick (University of Texas), has played on 29% of all Broncos defensive snaps entering Week 16 on Sunday against the Jaguars. He started three games at cornerback on base packages while cornerback Pat Surtain II recovered from a pectoral injury. But his primary role this season is playing the nickel in dime and nickel packages.

Barron is staying patient with his rookie development.

“As a human, you always want more,” Barron told The Denver Gazette after Friday’s practice at Broncos Park. “Even you, like with your job, whatever you’re doing, you didn’t get here just waking up. You had to do different steps and probably learn from different mentors. It’s always a process to get to where you want to go.”

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound defensive back has often flexed his skills as a tight end stopper this season. In Week 11, he often matched up man-to-man against Travis Kelce. Barron forced an incompletion and flexed on the future Hall of Fame tight end.

“Anything the team needs me to do, I’m willing to do. I get to work with Evan (Engram). I call him Unc. I get to work with him at practice, and he gets me a lot better,” Barron said. “So, when I guard those tight ends, it’s a bit natural. Because I guard a lot of tight ends in practice. … It’s just always trying to build on confidence. That’s really all it is for me. Nothing too physical. Nothing too complicated.

“It’s all a confidence game.”

Barron has logged 26 tackles, four pass deflections, one fumble recovery and one interception this season. He’s impressed teammates like cornerback Riley Moss.

“He’s done a great job of owning his role when he’s in there,” Moss told The Denver Gazette when asked about Barron. “I think the biggest thing, going from college to the NFL, is that every game matters and the margin of error is small. He’s done a great job of coming in, doing the little things right and being consistent. That’s the hardest thing to do, especially in a long season. … He’s consistently gotten better.”

Singleton award reaction

Alex Singleton was named the team’s 2025 Ed Block Courage Award winner earlier this week after the inside linebacker had successful cancer surgery in November. Singleton also came back from a torn ACL last season. The award is selected by teammates for a player with “exceptional courage, great character and inspiring effort.”

“It means a lot,” Singleton said after practice on Friday.

Singleton has used his platform to advocate for men’s health and regular health screenings.

“The support from every person that has DM’d. I obviously can’t answer everybody. But I’ve read them all or as much as I can,” Singleton said. “The guys reaching out and being so open and vulnerable with it. Their words of encouragement to me for how I’m speaking out, and how much it means to them that someone with this platform is doing that.”

Briefly

Coach Sean Payton is not concerned about his team’s focus on Jacksonville with a playoff spot clinched. On Friday, Payton said: “This is a big game. It’s an important game. There’ll be bigger.” … Singleton has a theory of why the Jaguars (10-4) have won six of their last seven games. He said: “They believe in themselves. It’s a confident team. We watched them play, and that’s what it looks like. Trevor Lawrence is playing really good football right now.” … Three Jaguars have been ruled out for Sunday against the Broncos due to injury: LB Jalen McLeod (ankle), DE Danny Striggow (ankle) and RB Bhayshul Tuten (finger).