The NFL started officially recording the quarterback sack as a statistic in 1982, and while the Denver Broncos have seen their fair share of elite pass rushers since then, it’s always been a shame that this stat only started counting after the heyday of the Orange Crush.
However, football historians John Turney and Nick Webster of the Pro Football Researchers Association have long been digging through archives to fill the gaps and display the great pass rushers of the ’60s and ’70s. They previously released their updated NFL Career records that placed Hall of Famer Deacon Jones at 3rd All-Time with 173.5 Sacks, but just this month (on my birthday, no less) they partnered with Pro Football Reference to release their findings.
They are still unofficial numbers, but the culmination of this decades-long project could loom large over Denver Broncos and NFL history as a whole.
With an armful of new stats to dig into, my immediate reaction was to see how the Denver Broncos’ sack leaderboards changed.
Since @pfref graced us with sack totals going back to 1960, here’s the updated Broncos leaderboards! pic.twitter.com/SxcsSDqFSb
— Matt Nagashima (@Matt_Nagashima) July 29, 2021
There was a ton of movement at the top, as Barney Chavous (75.0) and Rulon Jones (73.5) moved up to 4 and 5 respectively with a full accounting of their production from earlier in their careers.
Now that it’s been more or less confirmed that Chavous is among the best pass-rushers in team history, I feel more confident than ever in asserting that he should be in the Ring of Fame. Lyle Alzado (64.5) and Ring of Famers Paul Smith (55.5) and Rich Jackson (43.0) are all remembered as Broncos greats in the trenches, and it was awesome to see them represented in the top 10 as well.
The full lists for official and unofficial sack counts are available online.
With new leaderboards in hand, my next question was: just how good was the Orange Crush’s pass rush?
Denver’s iconic defense terrorized opponents in the late 70s – early 80s led by head coach Red Miller and longtime Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Joe Collier, featuring Ring of Famers like Randy Gradishar, Tom Jackson, Billy Thompson, Louis Wright, and even Paul Smith towards the end of his career.
Barney Chavous, Rulon Jones, and Lyle Alzado were all key pieces of this defensive line, and if they were all vaulted into place with the Broncos’ top sack artists, I wanted to see just how the defense as a whole totaled up.
My findings surprised me a little bit. From 1976-1981, the Broncos averaged around 30 sacks a year and were in the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the league. The highest they ranked leaguewide was 11th in 1980 when the Crush logged 39 QB takedowns.
Though I was hoping for gaudy sack totals like those of the “Fearsome Foursome” who totaled 232.0 sacks for the Rams in the late 50s/early 60s, it seems that the main strength of the Orange Crush laid somewhere else. The trademark of this defense was an aggressive run defense and a stifling secondary, supported by the steady pass rush.
The run defense was anchored throughout this seven-year period by NT Rubin Carter and linebackers Randy Gradishar and Tom Jackson, the latter’s being the two names most associated with the Orange Crush. During this time, their yards/attempt allowed was the lowest in the league in ’77 and ’79, and 2nd lowest in ’76 and ’82.
In the run-heavy game of the times, this ability to shut down ground attacks meant that the Orange Crush could dictate the entire flow of games and remove the central component of the opponent’s offenses.
Their pass defense yielded little through the air either, and the likes of Louis Wright, Billy Thompson, and Steve Foley allowed the fewest passing TD’s leaguewide in ’76, ’78, and ’79. Their ability to suffocate opponents in both phases of attack is what truly made this defense great, and it was all thanks to Joe Collier’s 3-4 scheme.
The 3-4 was just breaking onto the NFL scene in the 70s, and Collier’s focus on fielding a flexible attacking linebacker corps and an ironclad secondary solidified the Orange Crush in NFL history. While recent Fans from my parent’s generation already know this and to them, I’m just rehashing common knowledge, but for a younger crop of Broncos Country like myself, getting a better picture of this legendary group.
Even though the pass rush was not the focal point of this defense, I’d like to point out that the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th places on the Broncos’ new all-time sacks list are occupied by members of the Orange Crush. This unit was still more than capable of turning up the heat on opposing QB’s, with Tom Jackson (40.0 Sacks) & Rubin Carter (30.0 Sacks) coming in at 11th and 16th on that list to boot.
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Digging into the Broncos’ past like this has been an illuminating experience, and fans should be grateful for the hard work of John Turney, Nick Webster, and the PFRA.