ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Tucked away in the list of players the Denver Broncos brought to their facility for visits before the 2022 draft was a cornerback some scouts thought was a little too small and a tick or two slow on the stopwatch.
But those looking for Ja'Quan McMillian these days can really just follow the ball.
"There are certain players, the ball finds them," said Broncos coach Sean Payton. "He seems to have those traits ... his enthusiasm is kind of contagious."
McMillian has gone from being a game-day inactive in the Broncos' season-opening loss versus the Las Vegas Raiders to a bit of a revelation as the nickel cornerback in the NFL's most turnover-happy defense.
Since defensive coordinator Vance Joseph tweaked the lineup after the historic disaster against the Miami Dolphins in Week 3, McMillian has been everything the Broncos could have hoped for at a position many of the league's personnel executives say is one the most difficult to fill.
McMillian has two interceptions, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and five tackles for loss in the past eight games. And while the second-year cornerback has been just one piece of the bounce-back puzzle, he has been a corner piece as the Broncos are 6-2 in those eight games and now lead the league in takeaways with 22.
"J-Mac's been great," safety Justin Simmons said. "I say all the time ... we've got to do it right all the time, no mistakes and ... J-Mac has just been doing a good job of doing things right all the time, and he's being rewarded by finding the football."
The Broncos have 15 takeaways in the past four games alone, including both of McMillian's interceptions, his forced fumble and both his fumble recoveries. It is the Broncos' highest total in a four-game span since 1989, when Hall of Fame safety Steve Atwater was a rookie.
"I think if you do things right, the football gods are going to bless you," McMillian said with a smile.
Many teams like the Broncos have essentially turned their nickel defense (five defensive backs) into their base defense, with 60-70% of the snaps with that grouping on the field. That puts the nickel cornerback -- the fifth defensive back -- in a position to have to tackle along the line of scrimmage in the run game when asked, cover tight ends who might outweigh him by 60 pounds in traffic or handle some of the league's most explosive receivers who get the ball from the quarterback quickly after the snap.
Broncos defensive backs coach Christian Parker calls it an "action-packed position" where "you're the connector, you're the quarterback, you're the mouthpiece of the defense."
Longtime Broncos nickel cornerback Chris Harris Jr. has likened it to "tackling like a linebacker sometimes, running like a corner sometimes and making quick decisions all of the time because the ball is coming at you in like a second-and-a-half."
McMillian has always snatched the ball away from receivers -- 22 interceptions in his high school career to go with 12 more during his time at East Carolina. But he measured 5-foot-9¾ inches tall at his pro day in March 2022 and ran a 4.59-second hand-timed 40-yard dash.
Those numbers could make some talent evaluators pause, but McMillian also had a 36½-inch vertical jump, a 10-foot broad jump and a 6.76-second time in the three-cone drill -- all results that show explosiveness and short-area athleticism. McMillian's three-cone time, for example, would have been the second fastest among cornerbacks at the combine in February.
Or in Broncos lore, eerily close to the numbers of Harris -- a four-time Pro Bowl selection and an NFL All-Decade selection in the 2010s. Harris was measured at 5-foot-9 on his pro day, ran a 4.48 40-yard dash and had a 34-inch vertical, 10-foot-1 broad jump and 7.01-second three-cone drill.
"I've said to guys I do think I play three different positions sometimes," McMillian said. "It's like a cornerback sometimes, sometimes a linebacker and then sometimes some safety."
Simmons said he and veteran safety Kareem Jackson saw early on that McMillian, who spent almost all of the 2022 season on the Broncos' practice squad before he started in the season finale against the Chargers, was ready to be pushed.
"In today's league, [nickel] is so hard," Simmons said. "J-Mac has been doing such a good job of fitting in the run when we need him to, playing really solid in the passing game, getting body on a body, communicating, getting his checks, he's the epitome of doing things the right way ... Me and Kareem [have been] hard on him, but he's been handling it so well."
The Broncos, now on the edge of the AFC's playoff race, will have four games over their last six of the season against teams currently ranked in the league's top 10 in passing yardage -- Houston (second), Detroit (third) and the Chargers (10th). The Broncos face the Chargers Dec. 10 and Dec. 31.
"He's like all of us," Simmons said. "We all need to handle the week we're in. The game we're in. The play we're in. That's it. We've already seen this season what it looks like when we don't just handle what's in front of us right now. He's done a better job of that, we all have and we're going to need him."