Denver Broncos

Sixty-eight sacks. The Denver Broncos defense got home sixty-eight times in 2025 — number one in football, the hundredth percentile of the entire league. Here's how Vance Joseph's pass rush rewrote this team's identity, what Bo Nix actually was when the lights got brightest, and the one weakness that finally caught up with Denver in January. Fourteen and three. AFC West champs, the number-one seed in the conference, a Divisional Round win over the Bills — and then a seven to ten heartbreaker at home to the Patriots in the AFC Championship. The 2025 Broncos smashed. They just didn't quite finish.

Let's set the table with the team numbers. Offensively, Denver finished at plus fifty-three point six in total expected points added — how much every snap added to their scoring chances across the season — tenth in the league, seventy-second percentile. The defense was even better: minus ninety-two point seven in expected points allowed, and remember on defense that big negative number is elite — sixth in football, eighty-fourth percentile. The schedule tells you this was a steady, grinding team, not a boom-or-bust one. Eleven of their fourteen wins came by eight points or fewer — the thirty-three-thirty-two thriller against the Giants in Week 7, the thirteen-eleven dogfight at the Jets in Week 6, the twenty-two-nineteen win over the Chiefs in Week 11. The third-down rate backs it up: forty-two point seven percent, eleventh in the league. This team stayed on the field, stayed close, and won the margins.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. Denver threw for two hundred thirty-one yards a game and finished at plus fifty-four total passing expected points added — plus point zero eight per attempt, ninth in football, seventy-fifth percentile. Solid, not spectacular. Underneath the headline, Bo Nix's ball-placement numbers were below the league bar — completion percentage of sixty-three point four against an expected sixty-five point five, a completion percentage over expectation of minus two point one, twenty-eighth among qualified starters. So how did the unit finish top ten? Volume, explosives, and one elite outside receiver. Courtland Sutton — seventy-four catches, one thousand seventeen yards, seven touchdowns — was the engine. Watch the Week 3 game at the Chargers: down ten-nothing late in the second quarter, fourth and two from midfield, Nix to Sutton on a deep ball down the left sideline, fifty-two yards, touchdown. That single play added more than six expected points and it tells you exactly what this passing game was — not surgical, but big-shot capable when Sutton ran underneath it. One real concern: Denver was sacked twenty-three times on six hundred seventy-six dropbacks, a three point four percent sack rate, thirty-second of thirty-two — the third percentile. The pass protection was the worst-ranked unit in football by sack rate. They survived it. That's not a guarantee.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. Split-personality story. The team total: two thousand eighteen rushing yards, one hundred eighteen point seven a game, four point four yards a carry, sixteenth in football. Total rushing expected points added came in at minus nine point three, fourteenth in the league, fifty-ninth percentile — functional, not dominant. But the arc matters. Through Week 10, J.K. Dobbins was the back — one hundred fifty-three carries, seven hundred seventy-two yards, five point one a clip, and a rushing yards over expected of plus one hundred sixty-one, fourth among qualified runners in the entire league. That's elite. Dobbins didn't appear after Week 10 — likely injured reserve — and the workload shifted to rookie R.J. Harvey, who finished at one hundred forty-six carries for five hundred forty yards, three point seven a carry, with a rushing yards over expected of minus ninety point eight. Same offensive line, very different output. The efficiency dropped when Dobbins went down, and you can feel it in the second-half numbers.

Next up, the pass defense. This is the headline of the entire season. Denver allowed two hundred twelve yards a game through the air and posted a passing expected points added allowed of minus seventy-five point seven six — ninety-fourth percentile in the league. The engine was the rush. Sixty-eight sacks led the NFL outright, and one hundred forty-nine quarterback hits also ranked first — the hundredth percentile. Third-down stop rate sat at the ninety-seventh percentile. Quarterbacks did not breathe in this defense. The one nit: only sixteen takeaways on the year, twenty-fourth in football, twenty-eighth percentile — the pressure didn't always convert into the ball. But when it did, it was a haymaker. Week 8 against Dallas, fourth quarter, Denver already up twenty, Dak Prescott trying to climb back from the eleven-yard line — Dre'mont Tillman picked it off in the red zone and ran it thirty-six yards. That one play was worth more than seven full expected points on its own and it captured the defense's whole identity: relentless front, opportunistic when the rush met the route.

And the run defense. Quieter story, still good. Denver allowed ninety-one point two rushing yards a game and a rushing expected points added allowed of minus seventeen, sixty-third percentile — above average, not elite, and steady week to week. Opponents averaged below the league norm per carry, and no single game blew up on them on the ground. The interior held up week after week — which is how you survive a year with only sixteen takeaways. You don't let the run put offenses in easy down and distance. Solid, dependable, and a perfect complement to the league-leading pass rush in front of it.

Welcome back to Muffed. The Broncos walked into the 2026 draft without a first-round pick — that chip got cashed in earlier — so Denver's class has no top-32 headliner to anchor it. Instead, George Paton and Sean Payton played the middle and back of the board, seven picks total, shaped around two ideas: get younger on both lines, add explosion to the passing game. The on-paper headliner is a third-round defensive tackle out of Texas A&M, but the soul of this haul is the two fourth-rounders Paton flat-out said would define the class.

Start with run defense — Denver's highest pick lives here. At sixty-six overall, the Broncos took Tyler Onyedim, a twenty-three-year-old defensive tackle from Texas A&M. The college line is workmanlike — forty-eight tackles, nine for loss, three sacks — but the traits are what made him a third-rounder. Onyedim posted a Relative Athletic Score of 8.31, and quick definition: Relative Athletic Score is a zero-to-ten grade benchmarking combine and pro-day testing against every player at his position since 1987. That 8.31 lands him in the top fifteen percent of defensive tackles ever measured. And here's the thing — Denver's 2025 run defense was already fine, minus seventeen rushing expected points added on the season, which is a positive result for a defense. So Onyedim isn't a bandage. He's the youth infusion Paton openly wanted up front. Late in the seventh at two-fifty-seven, Denver added Buffalo linebacker Red Murdock as the forced-fumble dart throw — Payton's most enthusiastic line of the presser was, quote, he may hold the record for forced fumbles, end quote. The 6.81 athletic score says average traits, real motor.

Denver's 2025 rushing offense was neutral — roughly zero rushing expected points added, eighteen scores on the ground — so the one pick spent here had to be an efficiency injection, not a desperation hire. At one-oh-eight, it was Jonah Coleman, running back, Washington, and the first of the two fourth-rounders Paton said would define the class. One hundred fifty-six carries, seven hundred fifty-eight yards, fifteen rushing touchdowns — second in the Big Ten, twenty-third nationally — plus thirty-one catches for three hundred fifty-four yards. The number that pops: plus zero point three three predicted points added per play — the college version of NFL expected points added — and plus fifty-seven on the season. Elite efficiency in round four. Payton specifically called out the pass-protection frame and third-down viability — physical, smart, tough, and the protection traits don't need to be projected the way they usually do with college backs.

The offensive line got the other defining fourth-rounder, three picks later at one-eleven: Kage Casey, tackle out of Boise State with guard-tackle versatility. The Relative Athletic Score is 6.85 grading him as a guard — sixtieth-percentile range — and Paton was explicit that the swing-tackle, swing-guard flex is what made Casey the pick over a third running back. Denver's 2025 pass protection allowed twenty-three sacks across seventeen games, which is genuinely good. Casey isn't a panic move. He's the youth-on-the-line piece Paton kept circling back to.

Denver's 2025 passing offense produced plus fifty-three expected points added at plus zero point zero eight per dropback — fine, not explosive — and Paton said the word explosion specifically when describing what this draft was supposed to add. Two tight ends, two different jobs. In round five at one-fifty-two, Denver took Justin Joly, a twenty-two-year-old tight end from North Carolina State whose seven receiving touchdowns ranked second in his conference. Payton put him in the F-tight-end bucket — the move piece, the flex. Then with the very last pick of the draft, two-fifty-six, Mr. Irrelevant himself: Dallen Bentley out of Utah. Forty-eight catches, six hundred twenty yards, six touchdowns, plus zero point three five predicted points added per play for a total of plus twenty-four in the Big 12. Serious production for the final pick of the entire draft. And Bentley smashed his testing — 9.40 Relative Athletic Score, top six percent of tight ends ever tested. Payton categorized him as the inline Y, the bigger body who works down the field.

Pass defense got one swing at two-forty-six: Miles Scott, safety, Illinois. Sixty-four tackles, four pass breakups, a 7.87 Relative Athletic Score — top fifteen percent for free safeties. Payton said Scott's a converted receiver with seven career interceptions and natural ball skills, and he came recommended by Denver players who were his teammates at Illinois.

Pick of the draft has to be Jonah Coleman, and the argument is scarcity of trait. You could make the case for Onyedim on round value, or Bentley on the testing-versus-slot gap. But Coleman is the only player in this class who pairs top-of-conference touchdown production with elite efficiency and the pass-protection frame that keeps him on the field on third down. Three-down backs in round four are rare. Payton said openly that most college backs need third-down protection projection — Coleman doesn't. That's the pick that bends Denver's offense.

Looking to 2026, the real question isn't whether the headline picks hit — it's whether seven picks and no first-rounder is enough to move the depth chart on a team that already paid its way into Waddle and is leaning on returning starters. Paton said it himself: younger on both lines, more offensive explosion. On those two narrow goals, the haul lines up. The stress test is whether a class built on day-two-and-three swings delivers real snaps when the lights come on.