Last year, line­backer Malik Reed went from an undraft­ed nobody to the break­out rook­ie of train­ing camp. And, by Week 5, he was thrust into a start­ing job because of Bradley Chubb’s sea­son-end­ing knee injury. 

Now, Reed is again in a posi­tion to play a piv­otal role in Denver’s defense, with coach Vic Fan­gio say­ing Reed “picked up where he left off from last year.” 

“He’s a sec­ond-year guy who got a lot of play­ing time last year, and he picked it up from there,” Fan­gio said. “He’s a guy that’s in the mix. We’ve got him and Jer­ry (Attaochu) behind Von (Miller) and Bradley. We’ll play them all as needed.”

With the Bron­cos being cau­tious with Chubb in his return from a left ACL injury — “He may not be able to take the full load right off the bat,” Fan­gio said — there will like­ly be an oppor­tu­ni­ty ear­ly in the sea­son for Reed to prove last season’s growth and con­sis­ten­cy were no fluke.

After lead­ing the Bron­cos with four pre­sea­son sacks to help cement his ros­ter spot,  Reed had two sacks, three knock­downs and four pres­sures for nine total dis­rup­tions across 475 defen­sive snaps in 2019. He was lim­it­ed in the final three games due to injury. The for­mer Neva­da star also had 27 tack­les, 16 solo and four for loss.

“It was a learn­ing expe­ri­ence every week,  just being able to see dif­fer­ent guys, on dif­fer­ent teams, and see how they attack our defense and how I respond­ed (on film),” Reed said. “I def­i­nite­ly took a lot from each and every week.”

List­ed at 235 pounds on the 2020 ros­ter, the 6‑foot‑2 Reed said he lost weight in the off­sea­son to make him more fleet. 

“When I got here last year, I put on about five to six pounds, but it wasn’t the weight that I want­ed, and I didn’t put it on the right way,” Reed said. “So this off­sea­son I got with a nutri­tion­ist and worked up a plan to get to a good weight, and trim it up, so I can move a bit bet­ter. I feel good with where I’m at now.”

Along­side Attaochu (who dis­played his pass-rush­ing capa­bil­i­ties with 3.5 sacks in five starts last year), Reed said he’ll be “ready when my number’s called” as he con­tin­ues to grow into Fangio’s system.

“He’s show­ing the val­ue of what he learned last year,” Fan­gio said. “He’s made nice progress here (dur­ing the pre­sea­son). We just need to keep improv­ing him on the fine points.”

And for the play­er who earned the nick­name of “The Dream Killer” from Miller last year — for the way Reed wrecks quar­ter­backs’ dreams — the hunger to keep get­ting bet­ter shouldn’t be an issue. Reed, a man of strong faith, is a walk­ing case study in humil­i­ty and focus.

“From the pre­sea­son (last year), going into the year and then mak­ing the team and every­thing, I count that as a bless­ing,” Reed said. “And to still be in this posi­tion, I count that as a bless­ing as well… I con­tin­ue to take what I’ve learned, and take the path that I’ve been on, and con­tin­ue to dri­ve and push for­ward. I nev­er get complacent.”