The Denver Broncos have the best defense in the NFL. It may be premature to say, but the pieces are all in place for that to prove true in 2021.
If the adage defense wins champinships is true even most of the time, then the Denver Broncos just have to get back to the dance to have a pretty good shot come January and February. The Broncos may have the best defense in the NFL in the 2021 season, a declaration that could prove to be accurate even though we have not seen the unit take a single snap with pads on.
Our Minnesota Vikings friends over at The Viking Age argue that George Paton’s former team has the best defense in the NFL right now. There’s no doubt that Vikings GM Rick Spielman and Paton built a tremendous unit in Minnesota, even with some tough luck with high draft choices in the defensive backfield in recent years.
Denver Broncos: The NFL’s top Defense in 2021
The Vikings have one of the NFL’s best pass rushers in Danielle Hunter. They have an interior line group featuring Dalvin Tomlinson, Sheldon Richardson, and Michael Pierce. They have a linebacker duo of Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks that could rival most of the top duos in the NFL.
2021 free agent acquisition Patrick Peterson brings a veteran presence to the secondary along with Harrison Smith and up-and-coming Cameron Dantzler to help give the Vikings an impressive unit overall, but we’re here to argue that it’s not the Vikings, or even the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers that have the best defense in the NFL.
It’s the Denver Broncos.
What gives the Denver Broncos an edge over other teams for the title of best defense in the NFL?
Let’s take a look at five reasons.
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.
2. The pass rush duo of Von Miller & Bradley Chubb
The photo at the top of this page is evidence that Von Miller and Bradley Chubb have, in fact, taken the field together for regular season action.
The last time they did that was early in the 2019 season prior to Chubb suffering a season-ending torn ACL. Ironically, through their first four games together in 2019, the major storyline was that the duo of Miller and Chubb was struggling to get sacks on the quarterback.
The expectations in 2020 were high for Miller and Chubb even with Chubb coming off of his injury, but then Miller suffered a season-ending injury in the days leading up to the opener against the Titans.
With both Miller and Chubb back and healthy for the 2021 season, the Denver Broncos will feature the best pass rush duo in the NFL which the NFL has not seen on the field together for a long period of time since 2018 when Vance Joseph was still Denver’s head coach.
What cannot be overstated here is just how critical these two are to making the Vic Fangio defense tick. The Denver Broncos were actually still one of the best teams in the NFL in 2020 at sacking the quarterback despite not having Miller, and we saw Fangio blitz quite a bit more than he did in his first season in Denver.
The Broncos ranked near the middle of the NFL last season with a blitz percentage of just under 28 percent. In 2019, the Broncos were in the bottom 10 of the NFL in blitz percentage at 24.1 percent.
With Miller and Chubb at 100 percent (hopefully), the Broncos’ front four or five will be expected to get home at a high rate.
3. The deepest secondary Denver has ever had?
You cannot compare to the best secondary in Denver Broncos history without some substance (on-field proof), but let’s look at these two units on paper.
Super Bowl 50
- CB Aqib Talib
- CB Chris Harris Jr
- CB Bradley Roby
- S Darian Stewart
- S TJ Ward
- Top reserve: Kayvon Webster
2021 Broncos
- CB Kyle Fuller
- CB Ron Darby
- CB Bryce Callahan
- CB Patrick Surtain
- S Justin Simmons
- S Kareem Jackson
- Top reserve: Michael Ojemudia
Again, without some on-field proof, it’s tough to say the 2021 Denver Broncos secondary is better than the unit that Wade Phillips coached in Super Bowl 50. The No Fly Zone will go down in NFL history as one of the most dynamic defensive backfields in league history with a combination of playmaking ability, shutdown ability, and toughness.
Even in just five short years since they took home the Lombardi, the league’s rules have changed enough to the point that the secondary can’t be quite as physical as the Super Bowl 50 unit, but there’s no question that if all of these guys can stay healthy, it’s the best and most talented secondary the Denver Broncos have had certainly in the last five years.
The depth of this unit could be tested and still be one of the best units in the NFL. Last season, the secondary still did a good job for the most part with injuries left and right. The Denver Broncos were bringing guys in to start off of waivers last year, so having these veterans on the field with their combination of size, speed, ball skills, proven production, and intelligence will be must-see TV every week.
4. Underrated linebacker play
Alexander Johnson and Josey Jewell are not the fastest pair of linebackers in the NFL, but they have both taken major steps forward over the course of the last two years.
In the 2019 season, it was actually an injury to Jewell that paved the way for Johnson to step into the lineup and become one of the more productive tacklers in the league. Johnson is tremendous at reading running lanes and attacking the line of scrimmage.
The Broncos sent Johnson on 115 blitzes last year which ranked third in the NFL behind Haason Reddick and Shaquil Barrett, who are more of the outside linebacker/edge variety.
Jewell also emerged last season in the pass rush department, blitzing 58 times and racking up seven pressures, two sacks, and five QB hits.
Together, these two combined last season for 237 total tackles and again we have to come back to the communication factor.
These guys are now in their third season running the Vic Fangio defense, understanding how everything around them is supposed to flow and they will be able to continue to play in the defense without “thinking” too much.
As the scheme becomes second nature to these players, they will continue to be able to play fast and be effective despite not having 4.4 speed like some of the other top linebackers in the NFL today.
There may always be some limitations to their games in general, but both Johnson and Jewell are clearly respected by the front office and coaching staff in Denver as well as the analytics folks at Pro Football Focus.
5. Depth
For what feels like the first time in a long time, the Denver Broncos have tremendous depth at all three levels of their defense.
Even if their depth looked solid on paper in years past, it’s hard to look at the present roster and not think that they’ve made substantial improvements all over the defensive side of the ball to the point that the “next man up” might not be the worst thing in the world in 2021.
The defensive line easily goes two deep. The linebacker position has two talented young prospects in Justin Strnad and Baron Browning who will factor into the rotation in 2021.
The defensive backfield is as deep as we’ve ever seen it with the Denver Broncos, especially at the cornerback position where Pat Surtain is going into his rookie season as the team’s CB4, and not just because of silly “seniority”.
The safety position got a boost in the depth department with the additions of rookies Caden Sterns and Jamar Johnson, two players who have outstanding ball skills.
Thinking about having to make roster cuts on that side of the ball should be causing George Paton to lose a little sleep at night. It’s a great problem to have, to be sure, but no matter what cuts have to be made, the depth on the Denver Broncos defense is going to be very good.
Players who started for the team last year might end up being rotational pieces in 2021. Players who played no role in 2020 could step up to be key pieces of the rotation in 2021.
This group is easily the best Vic Fangio has had on paper since he left the Chicago Bears in 2018 and is frankly a lot better on paper than that one.
Potential is a word that NFL teams really don’t like to use, but this Broncos defense has more than just potential to be great. If they can stay healthy, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be ranking in the top 5 in every category, and one area where we hope to see a significant boost in 2021 is in the turnovers created department.
Denver Broncos: 53-man roster prediction at 2021 OTAs
The Denver Broncos will have some difficult decisions to make regarding the roster leading up to the 2021 season. Who makes the final 53?
Right now, near the end of June, may be premature to say it, but the Denver Broncos could very well have the best defense in the NFL in 2021.