Justin Strnad hadn’t looked at his phone after practice Wednesday, but there’s not much he can do anyway besides hope for the best.
The Broncos inside linebacker is a Tampa-area native and is keeping as close an eye as he can on his hometown, his family and friends and his own properties as Hurricane Milton barrels toward the Florida Gulf Coast.
“One of our nutritionists was saying it was moving a little bit South,” Strnad told The Post. “Hopefully it moves.”
Milton came ashore Wednesday night near Sarasota, south of Tampa Bay, as a Category 3 hurricane. According to the National Weather Service, the Tampa Bay area and north along the shore could still see a maximum storm surge of 6-9 feet.
Strnad had friends and family at his properties near the shore in the Dunedin area just north of Clearwater to clean up in the wake of Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago and now he and all of those family and friends are holding their collective breath again.
It is difficult to fully compartmentalize between work and then all of that, he acknowledged.
“A little bit,” Strnad said. “Obviously I can’t do much from here but I’ve got family and friends that are helping me with everything back home. They’ve been huge on that part helping me.”
All of the weather-related stress at home has come just as Strnad made his first two starts at inside linebacker since 2021.
“It’s been a little bit hectic, but you’ve got to just keep going with the flow,” he said.
Strnad had a sack and two tackles for loss in his starting debut against the New York Jets and followed it up with nine tackles and a TFL Sunday against Las Vegas.
“The more snaps you get out there, your eyes and everything else starts to get better,” Strnad said. “I feel like I’m seeing different things that the offense is doing as the game goes on. It starts to get easier and the more snaps you get, the more you get comfortable.”
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