The Broncos came out of Week 1 with a tackling mess that was hard to ignore and even harder to defend.
Depending on which tracking site you use, Denver’s defense missed 24, 25, or 28 tackles against the Chiefs on Monday night. However it’s sliced, the number was brutal.
The 26.1 percent missed tackle rate was the second-worst ever for a team since the NFL began tracking the stat, trailing only Denver’s own 70-20 loss to the Dolphins in 2023. Vance Joseph was the defensive coordinator for both games, and the data only goes back to the 2018 season.
By Pro Football Reference’s count, the Broncos’ defense had 85 missed tackles during the 2025 season and already had 24 in one night. That means nearly 28 percent of last year’s total showed up in a single game.
The roughest night belonged to DJ Jones and Alex Singleton. Both were charged with four missed tackles, but Jones’ line was especially ugly because he finished with just one tackle overall, leaving him with an 80 percent missed tackle rate.
Singleton missed four as well, though he made 16 tackles, which put him at 20 percent. Seven Broncos missed at least two tackles.
For perspective, the worst individual missed tackle rate in the NFL last season belonged to Jaycee Horn at 27.5 percent. Horn had 37 combined tackles and 14 misses. Geno Stone led the league in total missed tackles with 26, and the Bengals as a team finished with 170 missed tackles, the most in the NFL, for a 13.0 percent rate.
Denver’s tackling numbers stood out even against the rest of Week 1. The Browns were the only team close with 15 missed tackles, while the Titans had 14. The Lions had zero in their win over the Saints.
Singleton’s night also added to a pattern. According to PFR, this was his third career game with four missed tackles, and his other one in a Broncos uniform came in the 25-point loss to the Lions in 2023.
In those four-miss games, his teams lost 22-33, 17-42, and 10-31. His worst career missed-tackle outing came in that 17-42 loss to Detroit.
The broader comparison around him is not flattering. Bobby Wagner, a future Hall of Famer, has a career missed tackle rate of 4.5 percent and a career high of 12 missed tackles in 2021.
Fred Warner, who also misses tackles at times, carries the same 8.5 percent career rate as Singleton but separates himself in coverage and playmaking. Warner has allowed a 86.1 passer rating when targeted in his career, compared with Singleton’s 107.3, including 122.9 in 2025.
Warner also has 57 passes defended, 18 forced fumbles, and 10 interceptions. Singleton has 17 passes defended, three forced fumbles, and three interceptions.
That gap is part of what makes Denver’s situation so uncomfortable. The coaches have seen enough to know Singleton’s issues, but they still have not moved him out of the starting lineup.
Jordan Turner and Karene Reid are the backup inside linebackers, but Reid has only three defensive snaps in his career and Turner has 25. Physically, either could be an upgrade.
Mentally, the Broncos do not appear ready to trust either one with the defense’s green dot and the responsibility for the calls and audibles that come with it.
And with the Jaguars next on the schedule, the worry is obvious. The Chiefs already showed the blueprint: keep leaning on the run game, make Denver tackle, and see if the Broncos can finally clean up the problem they created themselves.
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