Broncos stock report: Jahdae Barron emerges as Vance Joseph’s tight-end stopper

In the signature win of the Sean Payton Era in Denver the Broncos toppled the Chiefs - on Sunday to position themselves in the driver s seat in the AFC West Here s The Denver Post s stock analysis from an exhilarating day at Empower Field Stock up Jahdae Barron TE stopper Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has revealed something at the perfect time with Barron the Broncos first-round pick who s been stuck behind high-performing veterans at defensive back Through much of the first half Joseph stuck Barron on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in man situations No easy matchup That s a -year-old rookie trying to check a Hall of Famer with years and pounds on him Barron handled his assignment with aplomb in perhaps the best competition of his pro career Kelce finished with nine catches for yards and a touchdown majority of of which came in the second half he had just two catches for yards in three targets and six routes against Barron On second-and- toward the end of the first half Barron broke across the middle and blanketed Kelce on an incompletion and then got up and talked trash to a seven-time All-Pro Vance Joseph might have a TE stopper in Jahdae Barron Matched up direct on Travis Kelce times by my count Allowed catches on tgts for yards Watch Barron jam Kelce play this beautifully and then get in the face of an all-time-great TE pic twitter com mMrRR kDvf Luca Evans bylucaevans November Once Pat Surtain s back Barron s ability to grapple with tight ends gives Joseph another wrinkle against teams with a wealth of receiving options Jaleel McLaughlin goal-line back One didn t need much emotional intelligence to sense how much Sunday s touchdown the Broncos only one of the competition meant to McLaughlin The third-year running back has been wedged deep in the Broncos running back room for majority of the season but he definitively got his shot with J K Dobbins on injured reserve And he played a rather unique role a -foot- goal-line hammer Sean Payton handed the ball to McLaughlin two straight times after first-and-goal at the Kansas City -yard line and McLaughlin responded with two -yard totes On the second virtually every big body on the Broncos offensive front shoved him across the plane The Broncos rushed for just yards on carries in Dobbins absence Sunday but McLaughlin s contribution put them over the top Group film review Joseph s defense is humming right now because of individual players abilities to win one-on-one assignments It s also humming because they seem to win chess matches every week They outmaneuvered the Chiefs on Sunday even without green-dot communicator Alex Singleton Justin Strnad filled in brilliantly in his first start at mike linebacker On second-and- on Kansas City s final offensive drive Strnad Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga all seemed to recognize the Chiefs play before it happened Greenlaw and Strnad switched assignments Hufanga pointed at Rashee Rice to indicate he was going in motion Hufanga bumped onto Rice Greenlaw and Strnad utterly blew up a three-tight-end formation over the middle and Patrick Mahomes had nowhere to go on an incompletion nd play on Chiefs' final drive Broncos' Dre Greenlaw Justin Strnad Talanoa Hufanga see this play before it happens Greenlaw points like he knows Rashee Rice is coming in motion to left Watch Talanoa Hufanga gesture he's checking Rice Broncos just swallow this up pic twitter com XdAedNtQ M Luca Evans bylucaevans November Sean Payton chutzpah After the Broncos win Payton took to the podium for certain well-earned gloating I hear several of the narratives Payton mentioned and I just want to like cry What narratives exactly That the Broncos needed to show more after an - start That they weren t favored against Kansas City Either way Payton clearly managed to unify an entire locker room around an underdog mentality despite entering Sunday tied for the best record in the NFL Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto appealed Twitter What they gon say now Cornerback Ja Quan McMillian petitioned Twitter Y all were saying what now The best NFL teams often take on the personality of their head coach It s happening in Denver In a phrase defiant confidence Stock down RJ Harvey bouncing The rookie running back has been explosive on a great number of of his touches this season There s plenty of faith in him to figure it out too But Harvey finished with just yards on carries Sunday a slightly concerning start to life down the stretch without J K Dobbins Sunday was indicative of a growing trend across Harvey s rookie year He s often played like a home-run hitter and yet indeed runs better between the tackles Harvey s averaging yards a carry on inside runs this season and on outside runs according to Next Gen Stats He picked up yards on five carries outside the tackles against the Chiefs That ll be a point of emphasis after the bye Payton trick plays They haven t worked for two straight weeks and often in hilarious fashion Somehow wideout Courtland Sutton was dinged for a sack against the Raiders in Week after a pitch back to him from Nix was swallowed up And on a first down on the Broncos first drive Sunday Payton called for a reverse to RJ Harvey who then cocked to fire back to Nix as a receiver Harvey was in fact recruited out of high school as a quarterback But the Chiefs read it all the way and Nix had to swat the pass down I tried to show off my DB skills Nix joked postgame Never an awesome sign Related Articles Parker Gabriel s thoughts after an AFC West-shaping win over K C including Bo Nix begging Sean Payton to get plays called faster Broncos take up for QB Bo Nix after Chiefs win He s the toughest dude on our association How Broncos Ja Quan McMillian became the hero against Patrick Mahomes Chiefs Broncos analysis After chasing Patrick Mahomes for years Denver at last caught him in division-tilting win Keeler Broncos WR Troy Franklin no-call has Chiefs fans feeling robbed by refs Talk about pot calling kettle black The officiating By rough estimate Sunday s officiating crew led by head referee Adrian Hill huddled to discuss flags at least five times The fans at Empower Field got so antsy they began booing And neither side ended up happy Kansas City s tackles weren t dinged for numerous clear holds on Denver s edge rushers and Broncos wideout Troy Franklin clearly jumped early on a late game-sealing catch Agents have a brutal job This just wasn t a great showing Dragonslayer There is in fact a horde of X aka Twitter profiles named a few variation of Dragonslayer so Adam Trautman hit it right on the head when he concocted a fictional handle for the social media platform None of them happened to be talking about Bo Nix of program But Trautman delivered what ll easily stand as the quote of the year in writing off the mob of Nix critics as an amorphous fellow going by Dragonslayer who sits in his mother s basement and drinks Slurpees Trautman either killed that gamertag for life or just spawned a whole line of Dragonslayer T-shirts So maybe stock is up here certainly Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis