Broncos think they’re primed to master one of NFL’s toughest tasks: Assembling dominant defense built to last

The Broncos couldn t have questioned for a better time for their best defensive players to step up With a playoff berth in the balance on the road in late December against a high-powered Cincinnati offense Zach Allen tormented quarterback Joe Burrow to the tune of sacks and eight pressures He was in on sacking Burrow on five different occasions and got the star quarterback to the ground on back-to-back snaps in overtime Cornerback Pat Surtain II meanwhile shut down All-Pro receiver Ja Marr Chase in a performance that likely solidified his eventual NFL Defensive Player of the Year selection Yet in the end Burrow still wrenched a triumph away from Denver When he wasn t getting pasted by the Broncos defensive front and stymied by Surtain in search of his top option Burrow poked and prodded dinked and dunked and conclusively tore through the weak points of Vance Joseph s defense to the tune of yards and three touchdowns to Tee Higgins the final a walk-off in overtime That encounter as much as any down the stretch provided a preview of how Denver would spend its offseason Upgrading on offense sure but also spending notable capital to fortify its defense The goal Simple Take one of the best defenses in the NFL and make it even better in The reality That s easier mentioned than done Building a defense to last in the NFL is tricky business and the AFC is in a golden age of quarterback play We had a great defense That was last year defensive coordinator Vance Joseph revealed This year is totally different My entire sell this entire offseason has been Let s start over again Let s keep improving Last year counts but it doesn t matter moving forward We have to continue to improve A volatile business The NFL is a league driven by star quarterbacks Plain and simple Patrick Mahomes has led Kansas City to the AFC Championship Competition each of the past seven seasons The quarterbacks who started opposite him in those games Burrow twice Josh Allen twice Lamar Jackson and Tom Brady Teams with good quarterbacks naturally tend to be consistent performers Last fall marked the third straight year that Kansas City Baltimore Cincinnati and Buffalo all ranked in the top of offensive DVOA a metric developed by now-FTN chief equipment officer Aaron Schatz that attempts to capture overall efficiency There s no equivalent position defensively that has that level of impact on unit-level performance year after year The quarterback controls so much of what goes on on the field that defensive performance is naturally going to vary more because it s kind of subject to the quarterback Schatz notified The Post Even if you try to adjust for the quality of quarterbacks you re playing defensive performance is affected It s not a big surprise then that several in football analytics see defensive performance as more volatile There s a lack of consistency when it comes to certain defensive metrics Schatz pointed out that Surtain was just OK by several metrics in but terrific in and the best corner in football in and defenses can t fully control production in categories like sacks and turnovers Turnovers are obviously really central but they re more random than yards Schatz reported And interceptions on defense are more random than interceptions on offense Again that comes back to quarterback play Even sacks I think the offense can be more responsible for them than the defense So you have these plays where the outcomes are really vital and they vary more for defense than they do for offense Denver Broncos cornerback Riley Moss runs up the field after making an interception during the third quarter of the meeting at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Oct The Denver Broncos beat the Las Vegas Raiders - Photo by Helen H Richardson The Denver Post The Broncos of discipline led the NFL by a wide margin with sacks in but they didn t just finish at the quarterback They were second in pressure rate too They were good but not elite in forcing turnovers tying for seventh at Joseph s group ranked near the top of the league across the board and checked in at No in defensive DVOA In the seven years of DVOA statistics on FTN s website none of the teams that finished fourth in defensive DVOA improved on that mark the following year Of subject there s not a ton of upward mobility from there More broadly only seven times between and has a top- finisher in DVOA moved up the following year Out of top- finishers stayed in the top the following year but more than half of those came from the same four teams Baltimore Buffalo San Francisco and New Orleans Those groups show it can be done Payton and then Dennis Allen oversaw a association in New Orleans that checked in between No and No from - Buffalo s been in the top each of the past seven seasons The ers had six straight and likely would have matched the Bills if not for a major rash of injuries that led to a No finish last fall It s an offensive-driven league and everything s meant to result points and be enjoyable so it s hard to be a really good defense Broncos inside linebacker Alex Singleton announced Because unless you re a fan of that crew nobody really wants that on Sundays Continuity plus If anybody s in position to match or exceed last year s defensive production though it might just be the Broncos Joseph s back for a third year orchestrating the unit Every member of Denver s defensive line who played a snap last year is under contract for The defense as a whole returns a whopping of its sacks and of its league-leading quarterback pressures After an functioning offseason the Broncos have more starters from last year s association who could be replaced due to upgrade safety P J Locke and nickel Ja Quan McMillian among them than core players who departed via free agency The biggest loss personnel-wise from is inside linebacker Cody Barton but even he wouldn t have been the every-down player he became for the Broncos if Singleton hadn t torn an ACL in Week It does help that Vance comes back and in large part the defense is going to return and even upgrade a scarce positions right now NFL Setup analyst Brian Baldinger communicated The Post I think it s harder to replace great coaches than it is great players The Broncos added what they think are at least a couple of really good players this spring too Singleton was amid his rehab back in March when free-agent negotiating opened and the Broncos followed their re-signing of D J Jones with three-year deals for inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga His reaction Hell yeah he recalled Talanoa Hufanga of the Denver Broncos speaks during OTAs at Broncos Park in Englewood Colorado on Thursday May Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post If the Broncos had a weakness last year it developed in the middle of the field and in defending running backs in the passing match They had trouble at cornerback when Moss missed time with a late-season knee injury too The free-agent additions plus the selection of cornerback Jahdae Barron at No overall in April s draft are clearly targeted at shoring up those areas Whether they elevate the defense or stave off regression though remains to be seen You start with the premise that a top-five defense last year is more likely to be like a top- defense this year Schatz declared Then you add Greenlaw Hufanga and Barron to that I would say that you should start with the idea that there s unfailingly going to be particular major regression on defense Maybe the players they added will counter the regression but it s unlikely that they will overwhelm the regression Joseph noted those additions allow him and the defensive staff to go back to the drawing board rather than just slotting them into the existing structure We watch every clip from last year and once you watch it all you get a clear idea of how teams attacked you Joseph revealed It was obvious I won t share that but it was obvious how teams attacked us and you have to go to work on how you prevent several of that stuff That s what you do in the offseason every year Every year you have to change and adjust as teams see you differently Our players have grown into different types of players The respect level for Pat has gone up so how we adjust off of that is going to be huge Expectations of dominance No two seasons play out exactly the same Allen for example led all defensive tackles with pressures Surtain went on a preposterous run of shutting down top-flight receivers and allowed just receiving yards as the nearest defender for the entire season according to Next Gen Stats If they re healthy they ll undoubtedly be top-end performers again this fall But can they repeat that level of impact It s very likely that Surtain had a career season Schatz mentioned Zach Allen was insanely good last year It s very unlikely that he can be that good again this season just because you don t hit homers two years in a row Cornerback Pat Surtain II of the Denver Broncos lines up against the Las Vegas Raiders during the second quarter at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas Nevada on Sunday Nov Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post Related Articles Broncos Mailbag When is Russell Wilson at last officially off Denver s books Russell Wilson petitioned Broncos for M in owner Greg Penner wondered if deal needed to happen at all document shows Broncos announce open training camp dates limited attendance due to ongoing construction Why Broncos J K Dobbins through years of injury has constantly kept showing contentment I can t give up Keeler Broncos Marvin Mims says bromance with QB Bo Nix just getting started We re going to do particular special things Baldinger though sees a defense primed to play largely in a similar manner this fall Joseph had such trust in his secondary that he frequently sent five rushers and played man coverage behind If you get a lot of five-man rushes you re going to get a lot of one-on-one rushes and last year a lot of those guys won Baldinger mentioned They should be every bit as good in that department this year and if they are and if they think they can hold up you re going to get a lot of five-man rushes I mean is a lot of sacks but you might be able to put up similar or close to that kind of number Baldinger explained he thought Sean Payton would want an emphasis on creating more turnovers and noted that in when the Saints won the Super Bowl they were second in that department with forced The Broncos additions may help with that but they also should help cover up a few of the ills that became more frequent down the stretch last year Denver gave up -plus points five times and four of them came from Week against Cleveland through the Wild Card loss at Buffalo Quarterbacks like Burrow and Justin Herbert picked them apart in the middle of the field We watched our film cut-ups from the fall Joseph mentioned We weren t perfect in every area Third downs we have to get better There s lots of room for improvement Greenlaw is considered a terrific coverage linebacker when healthy Barron s got the versatility to play inside or out depending on need And Hufanga s the kind of playmaker on the back end that Joseph loves finding solutions to build around It s my job to do what players do well I know what he is as a competitor Joseph reported He s a guy with great instincts He s a guy that s going to chase and tackle the football for us So I won t give him jobs where he s too tied up with nonsense right I want him to find the ball and do what he does best That s what I m talking about with players first and scheme second There are inevitably twists and turns during a season The Broncos were mostly healthy defensively last year but they felt Singleton s absence as the season wore on and they saw clearly the impact on the perimeter when Moss missed time There comes a point where even the best units can be compromised beyond repair by injuries like San Francisco last year The Broncos have bolstered an already-good defense to a point however where that kind of massive injury run looks like about the only thing that can keep it from being really good again this fall I think Sean and the front office are just showing that how you win football games in this league is on defense and now it s our job to prove that Singleton declared Payton himself reported he wasn t sure he put much stock in the notion of defensive volatility in the first place He oversaw a long stretch of good units in New Orleans both early in his tenure and then again near the end of it The Broncos added significantly to the group early in his time here and now have the pieces in place albeit impossible to keep together fully beyond this year to put another consistent stretch together I think it just depends on the company he revealed this summer before flatly stating his expectation for And I don t plan on having any volatility with our defense from last year Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis