JB Brown is optimistic about making the Broncos’ 53-man roster and perhaps even becoming the team barber.

The linebacker went undrafted out of Kansas before agreeing last weekend to sign with Denver. He received one of the more lucrative deals the Broncos handed out to college free agents, getting a $10,000 signing bonus and an additional contract guarantee of $150,000.

While with the Jayhawks, he was known as “JB the Barber” since he cut hair regularly for players on the team, charging between $15 and $20 an appointment. But first the football part.

The Arkansas native spent his first three college seasons playing inside linebacker in Bowling Green’s 3-4 defense before being a middle linebacker the past two in the Jayhawks’ 4-3 scheme. Brown last season had 74 tackles, including five sacks, and was named All-Big 12 honorable mention.

After not being drafted, Brown chose to sign with Denver over Philadelphia, which did not offer similar money.

“It was a good fit for me, and (the Broncos) showed a lot of interest with the guaranteed money,” Brown said. “I feel like I have a good chance to make the 53-man roster. … I can bring a lot with special teams and on defense. I’m a good, solid blitzer and at Bowling Green, I was in a very similar defense. I think I’ll fit in perfectly.”

Brown is indeed very confident about making Denver’s roster.

“It’s a business at this point,’’ he said. “To take somebody’s job, that’s what I came to do.”

Speaking of business, Brown knows a good bit about that. He said he made between $60,000 and $70,000 in NIL money in his two Kansas years while earning several thousand more dollars with his barber gig.

When he was a senior at Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Ark., and before he enrolled at Bowling Green, the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. Brown found himself looking for things to do.

“I was bored at home, and the barber shops weren’t open,’’ he said. “So, I figured I would learn to cut my own hair.”

After watching videos online and ordering some supplies, Brown cut his hair in front of a three-sided mirror, and it looked pretty good. He found a friend who agreed to serve as his “first dummy,” and that haircut also turned out well.

“After I got to Bowling Green, a couple of my teammates were wondering who cut my hair, and I told them it was me,” he said. “Word got around, and I started cutting people’s hair. It was the same way at Kansas; I cut my roommate’s hair and word got passed around.”

Eventually, Brown had a good business going. He cut the hair for about 15 players on the team and for some others, and estimates he did a couple hundred jobs during his time at Kansas. Since other players were earning NIL money, he had no problem charging.

“I was playing linebacker, too, and that’s hard to do, so I had to charge them when I had free time,’’ he said. “I had a good set of people come to me. I used to cut Dominick Puni’s hair. He’s in the NFL now for the 49ers (as a guard). I cut his hair pretty much every week.”

Now, Brown will take his clippers and linebacker skills to Denver. He is looking forward to learning from some of the Broncos’ veteran players, including Dre Greenlaw, a fellow Arkansas native.

Brown, a native of Hughes, spent his first three years at Nettleton High School in Jonesboro, before finishing at Har-Ber, which is 12 miles from Fayetteville, where Greenlaw went to Fayetteville High School and the University of Arkansas. Brown once in Fayetteville met the linebacker, entering his seventh NFL season.

“There’s not that many players in the league from Arkansas and him being a connection, he’ll be a great mentor for me to follow,’’ Brown said. “I’ll just try to pick up things from his habits and try to learn as much as I can from him.”

Perhaps Brown also might end up cutting Greenlaw’s hair.

Mecklenburg and Germany

If the Broncos again play a game in Berlin and the NFL wants to bring Karl Mecklenburg back to Germany, he would be all for it.

On Aug. 15, 1991, the Broncos faced Miami in a preseason game in Berlin, losing 31-27. The NFL had brought the star linebacker, who is of German heritage, to the country earlier that summer to help promote that game.

The NFL in 2025 will play its first regular-season game in Berlin. Team president Damani Leech has said the Broncos would welcome being the road team against Indianapolis, which has been named the home team. Whether the Broncos are selected will be announced no later than May 14, when the full season schedule is released.

“That was cool,’’ Mecklenburg, who played for Denver from 1983-94, said of his Germany visits in 1991. “(The NFL) flew me and my family over there. Mecklenburg is a state in Germany (officially known as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), so I visited Schwerin, which is the capital, and I also visited around Berlin.”

Mecklenburg said most fans at the game appeared to be very knowledgeable about football, helped by a large number of expats and U.S. military personnel in attendance. Flash forward 34 years and there are plenty of NFL fans in Germany. The league with great success has played regular-season games in Munich in 2022 and 2024 and Frankfurt in 2023.

If the Broncos return to Berlin, Mecklenburg figures he would be an ideal candidate to again promote a game there.

“With a name like Mecklenburg, that’s very German,’’ he said.

What I’m hearing

–Broncos defensive end John Franklin-Myers is spending several weeks this spring working out with pass-rush specialist B.T. Jordan in the Dallas area. Although Franklin-Myers hasn’t been at Denver’s offseason workouts, which began April 21, he could attend their second session of organized activities, from June 3-5, and definitely will be at their June 10-12 mandatory minicamp. Franklin-Myers has worked regularly with Jordan this decade. Jordan came to Broncos Park on occasions last season to work with Denver pass rushers and could do the same in 2025.

–Jack Tabb, the agent for Broncos rookie tight end Caleb Lohner, played for Denver coach Sean Payton when he headed the New Orleans Saints. Tabb was an undrafted rookie tight end in 2015 out of North Carolina who suffered a torn ACL in training camp and spent that season on injured reserve. He returned to the Saints in 2016 before being waived. Tabb became an agent in 2013, and Lohner, taken by the Broncos out of Utah in the seventh round, is his first client who was drafted.

What I’m seeing

–Guard Cameron Cooper, son of former Broncos guard Mark Cooper, has been invited as a tryout player to Denver’s rookie minicamp, running next Friday through Sunday. Cameron, a graduate of Aurora’s Grandview High School, spent time at Texas El-Paso and Colorado State before finishing college at Linderwood (Mo.) University. Mark played for Denver from 1983-87. If Cameron makes the Broncos, it would result in the third father-son combination in team history. Linebacker Tom Graham played for the Broncos from 1972-74 and tight end Daniel Graham was with them from 2007-10. Defensive tackle Luther Elliss played for them in 2004, and outside linebacker Jonah Elliss joined them as a rookie last year.

–Punter Matt Haack, signed as a free agent in March, could be hard-pressed to win the job after the Broncos selected Jeremy Crawshaw in the sixth round of the draft. If he does, Haack would become the third left-footed punter in team history. Bucky Dilts punted for the Broncos from 1977-78 and Corliss Waitman in 2022.