Zach Allen isn’t tiptoeing around expectations for the Broncos’ defense in 2026. He’s putting the bar all the way at the top.
After Denver led the NFL in 2025 with 68 sacks and 377 pressures, Allen said he believes this group can do even more this season - all the way up to the league’s single-season sack record.
“In this league you’ve kind of always got to keep on finding ways to get better and adjusting and all that,” Allen said, via the Denver Post.
“It also helps when you’ve got [Vance Joseph] dialing stuff up that helps us get one-on-ones. We’ve got a lot of good guys and that’s going to create a lot of opportunities for people. We came close to the sack record last year and we fully expect to break it this year.”
That’s a bold statement, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Denver’s pass rush was the engine of a defense that already had plenty going for it on the back end, where Pat Surtain II - the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year and All-Pro cornerback - anchored the secondary.
The Broncos finished just four sacks shy of the all-time mark, a record still owned by the 1984 Chicago Bears at 72. Denver’s 68 sacks last season already put it in the top five in NFL history, which gives Allen’s confidence a real foundation.
The challenge in 2026 is that the Broncos won’t have John Franklin-Myers, who posted 7.5 sacks in 2025. But the core of the rush is still intact. Allen is back after earning First-Team All-Pro honors in 2025, Jonathan Cooper remains a key piece, and Nik Bonitto is coming off a career-best 14.5 sacks.
Those three combined for 29 sacks last season, and that doesn’t even account for the eight other Broncos who recorded multiple sacks in 2025.
If Denver can replace Franklin-Myers’ production with help from younger players further down the depth chart, the path to another huge year is there. And with the pass rush working in tandem with a loaded secondary, the Broncos have the kind of defense that can chase a ceiling much higher than just another strong season.
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Payton even reached back to his own early days calling plays, pulling up a box score from a 1999 preseason game when he was the Giants quarterbacks coach to make a point to Webb. It was the kind of veteran-to-apprentice reminder that fits Denvers current setup, where the coach who has seen just about everything is still willing to teach while letting a new play-caller find his own rhythm. [Read more 🡒]