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.