When the Broncos made a trade for cornerback A.J. Bouye in March, one of the reactions was that the move seemed to slam the door on any chance that Chris Harris would re-sign with the team.
That proved to be correct as Harris wound up signing with the Chargers a short time later. That leaves Bouye as the leader of the cornerback group in his first year with the team, but he said on a Thursday conference call that he doesn’t feel the burden of replacing Harris.
“I don’t look at it as pressure,” Bouye said. “Me and Chris have a great relationship. He’s a guy who took me in when I first came in the league. . . . I can’t focus on living up to someone else who isn’t even here any more.”
Bouye said he won’t listen to any outside comparisons that people may make between him and the longtime Broncos star, but it does seem he listens to some of the noise. Bouye made the Pro Bowl in 2017, but his play the last two seasons was generally regarded to be at a lower level which led him to say that he’s “out to prove a lot of people wrong” in his first year in Denver.