Alex Singleton’s Week 7 work against Arizona has earned him a league-wide nod.
On Wednesday, the NFL named the Denver Broncos inside linebacker AFC Defensive Player of the Week, giving Singleton the first such award of his eight-year career.
He piled up the kind of stat line that makes a game impossible to ignore in Denver’s 30-16 win over the Cardinals: 19 tackles, including 12 solo stops, plus one sack and two quarterback hits. Per the team, those 19 tackles were the most by any NFL player in a non-overtime game since 2023.
That number is eye-catching on its own, but it also lands as just the third-highest tackle total Singleton has put together in a game. He recorded 21 tackles and 20 tackles in two separate 2022 matchups against the Chargers and Rams.
Singleton enters Week 8 leading the league with 87 total tackles, well ahead of 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, who sits second with 71.
The honor also gives Denver its second AFC Defensive Player of the Week winner this season. Safety Talanoa Hufanga picked up the award after the Broncos’ Week 3 win over the Rams.
Singleton has taken plenty of heat from Broncos fans since arriving in Denver, but his recent play has quieted a lot of that noise. He has bounced back from a rough season opener against the Chiefs and has managed to play to his strengths while the Broncos work to limit the coverage issues.
It’s also part of why the team has continued to invest in him, including a two-year, $15 million extension in March. And it’s why he remains the centerpiece at inside linebacker for a defense that has become one of Denver’s calling cards.
"Obviously it’s experience, man. I mean, he can call it for me.
He is my eyes and ears on the field," defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said of Singleton in August. "He can make adjustments very quickly with his experience, but he’s a tackling machine.
He had 170-plus tackles when he was healthy for us for the whole season. So we missed that last year.
He’s a hell of a blitzer also. He can cover backs.
So obviously having him back this year is going to help our defense go to the next level.”
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