Broncos' sack-happy defense can continue to climb all-time ranks in 2026

The 2025 Denver Broncos set a team record with 68 sacks after setting a team record with 63 sacks the previous season. Prior to the 2024 season, the team record was 58 sacks from the 1984 Broncos. The 68 sacks from the 2025 Broncos defense is tied for the fifth-best sack total in NFL history (with the 1985 Giants). The 63 sacks from the 2024 Broncos defense is tied for 15th-most with the 1986 Raiders. The defenses of the mid-80s seemed to just rack up sacks at an amazing rate. Only three defenses (the recent Broncos defense included) are NOT from the mid-80s in the top 20. The other two are the 2017 to 2019 Steelers and the 1999-2001 Saints. Admittedly, the 70s teams only played 14 games, and the 80s teams only played 16 regular season games.

The Denver Broncos rack up sacks at an alarmingly awesome rate

In terms of sacks per game, the Broncos defense from 2025 was 19th-best of all time with 4.00 sacks per game. The top sack-per-game team of all time was the 1967 Raiders at 4.79. That defense got 67 sacks in 14 regular season games. The Patriots in 1963 (when they were still the Boston Patriots) were close to that with 66 in fourteen games. The mid-80s Bears are the next two teams on the list. That defense had four Hall of Famers in the front seven: Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Steve McMichael, and Mike Singletary. The 1984 Bears had three players with double digits in sacks: Dent, Hampton, and McMichael. Many teams in the modern NFL have zero players with double digits in sacks.

Only seventeen players had double digits in sacks last season. Nik Bonitto was fifth with 14.0 sacks.

1. Myles Garrett - 23.5
2. Brian Burns - 16.5
3. Danielle Hunter - 15.0
4. Aidan Hutchinson - 14.5
5. Nik Bonitto - 14.0

With 131 sacks over the last two seasons, the Broncos need 71 sacks in 2026 to set the NFL record for sacks over a three-season timeframe. Of course, that is a tall order even with 17 regular season games. That would mean the Broncos would need 4.17 sacks per game, which would be 11th-best in NFL history. The only team this century that came close to that was the 2022 Eagles, who got 70 sacks in 17 games - 4.12 per game.

Sacks come from pressure, and the loss of John Franklin-Myers could hurt the effort to break the three-season sack record. He and Zach Allen were phenomenal at getting pressure in the center of the offense last season. Allen got pressure on 13.2 percent of his pass rushes last season while Franklin-Myers got pressure on 13.1 percent of his pass rushes. DJ Jones was the next best on the DL at 10.9 percent. Allen was 26th in pressure rate in 2025, and Franklin-Myers was 27th according to sisdatahub (minimum 200 pass rushes). With Franklin-Myers gone, the Broncos may have to rely on rookie Tyler Onyedim, veteran Enyi Uwazurike, and second-year defensive end Sai'vion Jones.

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