With Von Miller side­lined indef­i­nite­ly by an ankle injury, the Bron­cos don’t have anoth­er future Hall of Famer to replace him at out­side line­backer oppo­site Bradley Chubb.

But what coach Vic Fan­gio does have is con­fi­dence in the unit’s back­ups, both enter­ing their sec­ond sea­sons in his defen­sive sys­tem. Jere­mi­ah Attaochu, 27, is a for­mer sec­ond-round pick by the Charg­ers in 2014 who has tak­en the long road back to NFL rel­e­van­cy. Malik Reed, 24, who went undraft­ed, filled in ade­quate­ly for Chubb last year.

“I have con­fi­dence in them that they’re going to be able to play to their abil­i­ties,” Fan­gio said. “Nei­ther one is Von Miller, but they are who they are, and if they can do their jobs to the best of their abil­i­ties, we’ll be fine.”

The duo’s play will be even more imper­a­tive ear­ly on in the sea­son as Chubb, who missed the final 12 games of 2019 with an ACL injury, will be eased back into a full-time role. Attaochu start­ed over the final month of the 2019 sea­son and accu­mu­lat­ed 3.5 sacks as a force in the pass rush, while Reed had two sacks and 24 total tack­les across eight starts and 15 games total.

That pro­duc­tion down the stretch of 2019, when the Bron­cos fin­ished with a 4–1 record in Decem­ber, has also giv­en quar­ter­back Drew Lock and the offense rea­son to believe the defense can still be sol­id sans the face of the franchise.

“Jer­ry and Malik are going to be great for us,” Lock said. “We’re excit­ed for them, and I know they’re going to answer the bell… They’re going to come out and be ready as if their life depend­ed on it. And I know we’re going to have their back as an offense.”

Safe­ty Justin Sim­mons also echoed that con­fi­dence but not­ed Reed and Attaochu need to play with­in them­selves as the defense finds its rhythm with­out Miller over the first few games. For the reserve out­side line­back­ers to be con­sis­tent, the Pro Bowl-cal­iber tal­ent around them — i.e. Chubb, Sim­mons, line­man Jur­rell Casey and cor­ner­back A.J. Bouye — need to meet high expectations.

“For Malik or Jer­ry or any of the guys, there’s no replac­ing Von,” Sim­mons said. “There’s no, ‘Hey, step up and step in there and do what Von does.’ That’s way too much pres­sure on them. Von is among the best in the league, so the onus is on the team in gen­er­al to (fill his void)…. It’s going to take all of the defense and a whole team effort.”

Attaochu’s best year came in 2015 with the Charg­ers, when he post­ed a career-best 52 tack­les and six sacks in his sec­ond sea­son. Reed, mean­while, starred at Neva­da and then burst onto the NFL scene dur­ing last year’s train­ing camp en route to mak­ing the roster.