The Denver Broncos have made a strong effort to have one of the league’s best defenses in 2021.
New general manager George Paton has focused on strengthening the defense, reaching a deal with Justin Simmons, picking up the option on the contract of Von Miller, and signing two new cornerbacks in Ronald Darby and Kyle Fuller.
In addition, both Shelby Harris and Kareem Jackson will be back in 2021. Paton made sure to keep key pieces intact while making a strong effort to improve on major areas of need. You would have to give Paton a passing grade thus far this offseason.
The Broncos appear to be attacking the 2021 season by being a team that wins defensively while having an offense that isn’t necessarily explosive, but one that can do enough to win games.
That is very much like the 2018 Chicago Bears. The defensive coordinator of those Bears was, of course, Vic Fangio.
The 2018 Bears’ offense was far from explosive. Led by Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, the offense did just enough to win games. And win games they did.
That was a very good Bears team. They went 12-4 that season and three of those four losses were by a field goal or less. After winning the NFC North title, the Bears went into the playoffs and many thought they could reach the Super Bowl.
What makes people easily forget about this Bears team was the fact that it lost in the Wild Card round of the playoffs in a game that will forever be remembered as the “double doink”.
The Bears didn’t lose that game because of the defense. Fangio’s defense was the main reason the team went 12-4 that year and this Broncos team is being constructed similarly.
Let’s take a position-by-position look and see how these Broncos could be those Bears, hopefully with a much deeper playoff run.
D-Line
The Bears allowed just 80 rush yards per game in 2018, the best number in the league. That started with the push the team got up front, primarily out of two defensive linemen, Eddie Goldman and Akiem Hicks.
Hicks was an animal in 2018, having what was easily the best season of his career. He finished that year with 7.5 sacks, five pass deflections and three forced fumbles. He was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career.
Shelby Harris has all the tools to do what Hicks did that year and perhaps even surpass him. Like Hicks, Harris is turning into one of the more disruptive defensive linemen in football.
Goldman was the force in the middle of the Bears’ defensive line that season and while he is stout against the run, he can put pressure on the quarterback as well.
The Broncos like Mike Purcell in the role of the big, bruising nose tackle and while he may not ever be as effective as Goldman, he has the ability to be a force.
The Broncos also have the developing Dre’Mont Jones, a guy who could help push this defensive line over the top.
Outside pass rush
Both the 2018 Bears and the current Broncos have similarities in the guys coming off the edge. Both teams have a bonafide stud and a budding young star in this area.
The Bears had just acquired Khalil Mack through a trade just prior to the season starting and former first-round pick Leonard Floyd was entering his third season with the team. Mack and Floyd combined for 16.5 sacks that season.
The Broncos have the combination of Miller and Bradley Chubb, a duo that could be the best in the NFL. Unfortunately, untimely injuries have prevented Miller and Chubb from playing at the same time too often.
This is easily the strength of the defense. If the Broncos can have both of these guys available, forcing the opposition to account for them both on the field at once, they have the ability to destroy a gameplan and open opportunities for other teammates.
Miller and Chubb could each be double-digit sack guys and could easily eclipse the 16.5 posted by Mack and Floyd three years ago.
Inside linebackers
In 2018, the Bears had former Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan at one of the inside linebacker spots and the guy next to him, that year’s first-round pick, Roquan Smith, is the one player the Broncos currently can’t match from that 2018 Bears defense.
The Broncos have Alexander Johnson, a player who is quickly rising the ranks of linebackers in the league and while he may not be quite as athletic as Trevathan, he is able to play his position well and make plays. He has really blossomed since Fangio came aboard.
On the other side, the Broncos have Josey Jewell, a player who is closer to Nick Kwiatkowski, the linebacker that moved into more of a rotational role after the Bears traded for Mack and moved Smith into the starting lineup.
Jewell could serve in a rotational role and be a credit to the team, but the Broncos can find an equivalent for Smith in the first round of the draft by selecting Penn State’s Micah Parsons.
As a rookie in 2018, Smith had 121 tackles, five sacks and an interception. Parsons could match those numbers and perhaps be an even bigger impact player. He should be the player the Broncos take at No. 9 overall in the first round.
The secondary
The Bears ranked No. 7 in defending the pass in 2018 and with the additions of Darby and Fuller, the Broncos will hope they have recreated the ‘No Fly Zone’.
The secondaries of these two teams will look very similar, partly because they are. Both Fuller and Bryce Callahan were part of that 2018 Bears defense and both flourished. Darby is potentially an upgrade over the other starting cornerback that was on that Bears squad, Prince Amukamara.
At safety, the Bears had Adrian Amos and Eddie Jackson, who had a career year in 2018. Jackson had six interceptions and may have been the best safety in football that season, which ended with him in the Pro Bowl.
The Broncos have what could easily be an even better safety combination in Simmons and Kareem Jackson. The Broncos got a huge boost when Jackson signed a new one-year deal with the team last week after the Broncos had initially declined the option on his contract.
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How good can this defense be?
The 2018 Bears allowed just 17.7 points per game, the best in the league. They won 12 games with Trubisky at quarterback.
These Broncos arguably have better talent and personnel for Fangio’s defense. Can this tame win 12 games with Drew Lock? That sounds like a lot to ask for a team that has missed the playoffs in each of the last five years, but Paton has built a defense that fits what Fangio likes to do and it is the kind of unit he has had plenty of success with before.
There is no offense that is going to look at these Broncos and be excited to go against their defense.