The NFL Has a Denver Broncos Problem

The NFL Has a Denver Broncos Problem

Nick Bonito. And that foot is intercepted. It’s Bonito. Zachary Allen. He’s in trouble. And they got it. Zack Allen finally able to get to CJ Strad. Courtland Sutton. Nicks throws it. What a catch. Sutton. Patertan. Is there anybody in the league right now that you just really respect? Patan took the word out of Patan. Bo Nicks. When the games get big, Bo raises his game. That’s what he do. The 2025 Denver Broncos are the real deal. Top of the AFC, the future has arrived at Mile High. They’re no longer an exciting group of youngsters. They’re Super Bowl contenders, coached by some of the best in the game on both sides of the ball. Unlike seasons prior, these Broncos will grind out tough games, coming out on top more often than not with their eyes firmly trained on Lombardi number four. It’s been nearly a decade since they looked this good. But it’s time we all admit the NFL has a Denver Broncos problem again. And it all starts with their defense. Patrick Certan is the headliner as one of the most electrifying defensive playmakers in the league. A pure technician, one of the smoothest corners in coverage of his generation. Effectively a star from the second he stepped foot in the league as the ninth overall pick four years ago. This was solidified by his defensive player of the year campaign last season as he was truly indomitable. The crazy part is this Broncos defense has played lights out even in Certan’s absence following a pec strain in week eight. On top of that, the team’s leading tackler, Alex Singleton, has also missed significant time following an operation to remove a cancerous testicular tumor. But again, the defense hasn’t missed a beat. Vance Joseph’s unit is so dialed in that without two of its most important pieces, they are still comfortably a top three defense. Why? There is literally no exploitable weakness in this group. We’ve already spoken about Pat Certan, but instead of bombarding you with his PFF grades or random stats, we trust that you’ve got a solid idea of how good he is. Instead, we’re going to focus on the rest of this secondary. One man who is suffering from Certan success is quarterback 2 Riley Moss, who sees an unreal target share as opponents refuse to throw in PS2’s direction. Moss saw a fair amount of hate for pass interference calls in 2025. But when you’re called upon to perform as often as he is, that is completely understandable. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s significantly better than anyone on the internet has been giving him credit for. According to NextGen stats, as of November 4th, Riley Moss is allowing the lowest completion percentage, 44.4% in the NFL. Yet, he’s facing more targets than any other defender at 63. Moss is a lot better than he’s given credit for by fans. His peers, namely some of the best young corners in the league in Terrion Arnold, Christian Gonzalez, and of course, Certan publicly backed the Broncos CB2. I ain’t going to lie, going to take with Riley, boy. Yeah, he been hooping. Raleigh hard. Nah, Raleigh balling, bro. I ain’t gonna lie. I think they racial profiling my dog, though, man. They calling all these flags on my boy, man. I ain’t gonna lie. The flags is gregous, bro. You don’t understand, bro. He had a rep. I’ll trust them over randoms on Twitter. And even Jaquin McMillan, Denver’s nickel corner, has been having an insane season. His best game came under the brightest lights as he grabbed a pivotal pick on Pat Mahomes and also sacked the Chiefs QB twice in Denver’s epic 22 to9 victory. So with some of the best quarterback play in the league and an elite safety duo in front of them in Talenoa Hufunga and Brandon Jones, Denver allowing a league low nine passing TDs through 11 games comes as no surprise. The pass rush is also historically good. Last season they set a franchise record with 63 sacks, a mark which they could surpass at their current pace with 49 through 11 games. The edge rush trio of Nick Bonito, Zack Allen, and Jonathan Cooper will rightfully get a lot of the credit. The first two were second team allpro last season and this year have already combined for 15 and a half sacks. Bonito is the standout with his 21% edge rush win rate ranking sixth best in the NFL. They’re good and they know it. After beating Houston at their own game in week nine, Jonathan Cooper was asked, “There was so much talk about how good the Texans defense was. Did that motivate you guys to, hey, don’t forget about us?” Uh, I don’t think anybody really forgot about us. Um, but yeah, they talk about their defense, but you know, I think we got the best defense in the league. That’s all well and good, but the interior of this front deserves its flowers as well. Namely, John Franklin Meyers, who has been a wrecking ball at the line of scrimmage. He already has four and a half sacks on the year and his 9% pass block win rate is top 20 among all defensive tackles in the league. For all of the talent they have, Vance Joseph scheme and most importantly leadership have played a huge role in making this defense what it is. He’s been in his post as defensive coordinator since 2023, rehabilitating his reputation after a rough head coaching stint in Denver from 2017 to 2019. In his second stint at Mile High, he’s developed ed rushers like Nick Bonito and Zack Allen into all pro talent, centerpieces of the league’s most fearsome defense. The havoc that front reres on everyone allows the rest of the defense to work like a welloiled machine in coverage. As Joseph himself explained, with what we call, we’re giving the player one side of the route. And we preach leverage. If you win your leverage outside and the receiver breaks inside, you’re going to have a teammate there. It can look like man, but it’s not man. That’s the beauty of what we do. That’s the secret. But this defense is also eighth in run stop win rate, meaning they aren’t susceptible to ground and pound tactics either. In fact, they’re near identical. Negative0.1 EPA per pass and0.09 EPA per rush point to the well-balanced nature of this defense. To make that stat more digestible, let me put it this way. Whether the opposing offense dials up a pass or a run play, they are equally unlikely to score against this Denver defense. Now, that is what true dominance looks like on the defensive side of the ball. According to Rex Ryan, these kinds of performances had been a long time coming. When Shawn Payeyton took this job, all right. Yep. Was he scared of Andy Reid? He could have gone anywhere. No, he’s like, “Nah, I’ll go against the best.” All right. Why? He envisioned, he had a vision for this football team. This is what it was going to look like. And it started with building a tremendous defense. I already had a good one from Vic Fangio. Everything the pieces were already in place. He just added to it. And and to me right now, when you walk into a stadium knowing you have the best unit on the field and that’s that’s your defense, you don’t care who the hell you play. Denver’s defense is playing this good and they’ll be getting back two of their best players in Certan and Singleton before the season is over. So, even better days lie ahead. Now, I think we’ve spent enough time talking about this defense and how fantastic they are. Because one of the most prevalent media narratives around this team is that their defense is the only reason they win games. The offense is often written off as something of a liability. Obviously, Shawn Peyton’s men have struggled at times, especially at the beginning of games. For reference, a Will Lutz field goal against Casey in week 11 was the first time that Denver scored any points on their opening drive since week two. Instead, their calling card has been late comebacks. It all started against the reigning Super Bowl champs in Philly, where they flipped a 17-3 Eagles lead into a 21-7 victory all in the fourth quarter. Two weeks later against the Giants, Denver went into the fourth quarter down 19 to nothing, only to win a 33-32 thriller at the death. Two weeks after that, another walk-off field goal sealed yet another fourth quarter comeback against the Texans before they repeated the feat in week 11 against the division rival Chiefs, outlasting the reigning AFC Champs. Bo Nicks has been a significantly less efficient passer this season with a lower passer rating and completion percentage than he had as a rookie. The offense has looked stale and in some cases been carried by the defense. Narrow wins over the Jets and Raiders have critics pointing to the fact that Nicks always seems to play down to the level of his opposition. The flip side of that is that Nicks has done a fantastic job of not losing the Broncos games despite leading the league in pass attempts through 11 weeks, registering the lowest sack percentage of any starting QB. In fact, in many cases, he has played up to the level of his opposition as well. JK Doppins was averaging five yards per carry before his season was cut short in week 10, meaning Nick Knicks had no run game to speak of against the Chiefs in week 11 and still led the team to victory by carving apart Steve’s Bagnolo’s defense. In each one of those fourth quarter comebacks, he’s been ruthlessly efficient. The numbers don’t lie. He leads the league in game-winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks. Even if it isn’t always pretty, they keep stacking wins. When Nick’s play was criticized after the win against KC, Shawn Payeyton had this to say. Bo, especially on that last drive at the one to Sutton and then outstanding. How did he perform tonight? Kind of in a big I think real well. He won. That’s his job. He won. Outsiders are keen to hate on Knicks for winning. But everyone around the Broncos organization keeps laughing their way to the AFC one seed. And even if the performances aren’t all there yet on this offense, the consistent winning will help them get there. As future Hall of Famer Jason Kelsey explained, and and winning is a skill, right? Every time you do it, you’re honing that skill. And you’re seeing two polar opposites now where the Chiefs are losing all these close games. The Broncos, Bo Knicks is becoming a different quarterback when the line and their team is finding a way to get it done. Now, this is absolutely the case for these Denver Broncos. Outside of Courtland Sutton, injuries have depleted their offensive weapon such that they are having to rely on rookies like RJ Harvey and Pat Bryant as well as secondyear receiver Troy Franklin to take huge steps forward. They do benefit from having one of the best offensive lines in football. Just like the defense, they are strong in both the run and pass game. Their 13 sacks allowed are the second fewest in the league, while their average of 0.96 yards before contact is top 10. Even with starting guard Alex Powers recovering from surgery, Alex Pchevsky has filled in brilliantly. The short of it is that Knicks has the protection to be playing far more consistent football than he has to this point. Broncos fans would certainly appreciate fewer one-score games, but so long as this offense hits its stride in time for the playoffs, we’re doubtful we’ll hear too many more complaints. Rather than fixate on the slow starts, it’s worth giving credit where it’s due. Bo Nicks definitely has the clutch gene. So, with what could be a historically good defense and an offense that has proven time and time again that it will show up when called upon, the Denver Broncos are looking like a serious problem. For the first time since Pton Manning last laced him up, they’re at top a brutal AFC. have already dethroned Casey in the West after almost a decade of Chief’s hedgeimonyy. These are exciting times at Mile High. Furthermore, this team is still super young with their biggest playmakers like Bonito, Allen, and Sutton all locked down on long-term deals this past summer. The coaching staff has a championship pedigree already demonstrating a propensity for developing talent better than almost anyone else in pro football. That is to say that 2025 could well be the first of many more AFC West titles for these Shawn Payeyton le Denver Broncos. But what do you think? Will the offense catch fire in time for the postseason or will they get blown out like they were in 2024? Let us know in the comments.

The Denver Broncos have become a full-on AFC nightmare. A 10–2 powerhouse with the league’s most suffocating defense and a quarterback who keeps ripping out hearts in the fourth quarter. Patrick Surtain, Nik Bonitto, Zach Allen, Riley Moss, and a vicious pass rush have turned Denver into a problem nobody wants to see on the schedule. And despite the noise around the offense, Bo Nix keeps stacking game-winning drives and shredding elite defenses when it matters most. Add in Courtland Sutton, a top-tier O-line, and Sean Payton’s machine-like structure, and the Broncos look every bit like a Super Bowl contender again. The NFL spent years laughing at Denver, but now the league has a Broncos problem all over again.

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