The Denver Broncos defense rests (for a week)

Zach Allen played almost every snap for the Denver Broncos last game after missing the previous game. He really needs the rest since IDL guys don’t usually do that.

Coming into this season there were a lot of questions surrounding the Bronco defense.

1. How would the cornerbacks play outside of Patrick Surtain?
2. Who was going to be the CB2?
3. Could Ja’Quan McMillian replicate his rookie success?
4. Who was going to step up and provide the pass rush?
5. Who was going to fill Josey Jewell’s role as the second ILB?
6. Could our IDL players other than Zach Allen generate pressure?
7. What was going to happen with our safety play now the Kareem Jackson and Justin Simmons are both gone?

Things have worked out much better than anyone except those with the orangest of glasses could have hoped. The defense is currently second in ppg allowed behind the Chargers and tied with the Lions at 18.0.

The defense is also leading the league in sacks with with 47 which is five more than the second place Texans.

Current ESPN Win Rates

In terms of individual play, Nik Bonitto is currently 16th among edge defenders in pass rush win rate and Zach Allen is FIRST among defensive linemen in the same stat. Because Zach has played so much, he has a huge lead in total pass rush wins among DT/DEs with 44. Chris Jones of KC is a distant second with 27.

In terms of run stop win rate, Jonathon Cooper is currently 10th among edge guys with a win rate of 30% and DJ Jones is doing what he has always been elite at doing, stopping the run. He is leading all IDL players with a RSWR of 47% which is a step above TJ Slaton who is in second at 43%.

Moving over to SIS, Justing Strnad is currently 4th among “LB”s for pressure rate at 24.0%. He has generated pressure on 12 of his 50 pass rush snaps. I used 48 pass rush snaps as the minimum since most teams have played 12 games at this point (4 pass rushes per game). Using that, Nik Bonitto is 19th among pass rushing LBs with a pressure rate of 15.7%. Cody Barton and Jonathon Cooper are also on the first page (see below)

In terms of IDL guys, Zach Allen and John Franklin-Myers are the only two who are on the first page in pressure rate (min 200 PR snaps).

As far as coverage is concerned, Patrick Surtain has been absolutely elite. Among CBs he has the one of the best passer ratings allowed in the NFL right now (59.2). AS a team the Broncos are 9th in the NFL right now allowing a passer rating of 85.1. The Lions are currently the best at 76.5.

From a coverage perspective Brandon Jones and Ja’Quan McMillian have both also been really good.

Despite not being in coverage very often, Jonathon Cooper has also been quite good. On the flip side, Jonah Elliss, Devon Key, PJ Locke and Levi Wallace have all been bad to terrible in coverage this year by passer rating allowed. We’ll give Elliss a pass (pun intended) since he is a rookie edge defender who probably didn’t have to cover at all while in college. Locke and Key have been atrocious for most of the season (the Key doesn’t fit and the Locke is broken? – sorry I couldn’t resist). Levi Wallace was so bad against the Browns that Kris Abrams-Draine, who had never played an NFL defensive snap, got his spot for the final 12 defensive plays of the game.

This also bodes terribly for Damarri Mathis. Mathis has only been in on 22 defensive snaps this season with most of those coming at the end of the blowout win over the Panthers. While Mathis’ man has only been targetted three times (with zero receptions) that doesn’t mean squat since he was passed over (pun intended) by our defensive coaches to put in KAD instead.

Wallace doesn’t have the speed anymore to cover NFL WRs in man and he doesn’t have the quickness or awareness to function well in zone, so he either needs to try and move to safety or retire. Wallace had some decent games earlier this season, but he has been exposed in the last two games during which his man has caught 10 of 16 passes for 192 yds and 1 TD.

McMillian has 10 PBUs (6 passes defensed and 4 passes deflected) which is near the top of the league. Denzel Ward and Derek Stingley both have 15 to lead the league. Ja’Quan’s 10 is tied with a number of players for 4th. Riley Moss has 8, but his split is much different than Ja’Quan’s. Moss has 7 defended and only 1 deflected. Here are SIS definition of defensed vs deflected:

Pass Def. or Defensed: Passes defensed; the number of times the defender broke up a throw at the catch point. This can be done by either knocking the ball away or hitting the receiver as the ball reaches them to disrupt the catch.

Pass Defl. or Deflected: Passes deflected; the number of times the defender made contact with a pass either at the line of scrimmage or in the secondary, but without entirely stopping the pass from moving downfield.

PS2 has 7 total, but on significantly fewer targets. His man has only been targetted 31 times in 13 games, compared to 67 for Moss and 54 for McMillian. According to SIS, the only Bronco DB with a dropped INT this season is Locke.

The Bronco D has been quite good at NOT missing tackle so far this season. While they are not on the same level as the Steelers who only miss 3.7 per game, they are currently 10th in the league missing only 5.2 per game.

One of the Bronco’s final four opponents is worst in the league at missing tackles – the Colts.