5 reasons the Denver Broncos have the best defense in the NFL
1. Vic Fangio
The Denver Broncos have one of the NFL’s best assets in their head coach, Vic Fangio.
Fangio, over the last 40 years, has proven himself to be one of the sharpest defensive minds in all of football and is a refreshing combination of old school as well as innovation for the modern game.
Fangio has had success at pretty much every one of his stops in the NFL, whether that was building one of the league’s top defensive units or developing star players under his watch.
Since he became the Denver Broncos head coach in the 2019 offseason, Fangio has not gotten as much credit as he is due when it comes to the job he’s done as a defensive schemer.
The scheme Fangio runs has been so successful, in fact, that the Broncos have managed to have one of the NFL’s best pass defenses over the last two seasons and unquestionably the league’s toughest red zone defense.
The numbers do not all accurately reflect just how good the Fangio scheme has been. Even with some patchwork personnel units, Fangio’s defense has endured and played really well against some of the league’s best competition.
Notably, the Denver Broncos held Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to their second-lowest regular season point total (at the time) in a road loss last season, a 22-16 win for the Chiefs that could have just as easily swung the Broncos’ way if not for the ineptitude of the offense.
After that game, whatever Fangio did was copied by other teams around the league or at least used as a baseline, and the Atlanta Falcons then held Kansas City to just 17 points, the Chargers held them to 21, the Browns held them to 22, and then the Buccaneers famously dominated them in the Super Bowl, holding them to nine points.
It’s impossible to say all of the credit for the Chiefs’ struggles offensively down the stretch goes to Vic Fangio, and that’s just one example of what Fangio’s defense has been able to do, but there’s no question that the Denver Broncos have an elite weapon in their head coach, at least as far as understanding the way offenses are going in today’s NFL and how to effectively stop them, regardless of personnel.
The complexity of Fangio’s defense for the players who actually play in it has always been fascinating, and in year three for many of these guys in Denver, communication should not be much of an issue and execution should be a lot better.
If that’s the case, we should see a combination of outstanding scheme, talent, and communication on the field for the Denver Broncos in 2021.