In what is expected to be a rebuilding year, the Denver Broncos have expectedly started the 2024 season 1-2. What hasn’t been as expected though is how competitive the team has been in games against quality opponents. So far, the Broncos have played the currently 3-0 Seattle Seahawks, 3-0 Pittsburgh Steelers, and 2-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were undefeated prior to losing to the Broncos last Sunday. In the Broncos’ losses, they haven’t lost by more than seven points despite a rookie quarterback adjusting to the NFL. 

A major reason why the Broncos have kept games close is due to their defense playing great right now. Despite not having too many stars on the defense outside of Pat Surtain II and Zach Allen, who have both been playing fantastic to start the year, the defense is holding teams to the third-lowest yards per play and game, the second-least passing yards per game, and the sixth-lowest points per game. While there were a number of sites projecting the Broncos to potentially finish with the worst record in football, the team seems ready to be competitive as rookie quarterback Bo Nix adjusts to the NFL. 

How Vance Joseph is Pushing the Defense to its Limit

Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has gotten the most out of his defense by attacking defenses with an ultra-aggressive approach of blitzing on nearly half of the defense’s plays. This high rate easily puts the team at the top of the NFL for blitz rate at 45.7% and a whole 6% higher than the next closest team, the Minnesota Vikings. Outside of limiting points, this approach has been successful, as the team has the fifth-highest pressure rate and the fifth-most sacks in the NFL. This high rate of pressure on quarterbacks has also limited quarterbacks’ ability to step up and deliver throws downfield as the defense has allowed just one pass 20 yards or greater in their first three games which is the lowest in the NFL. 

That being said, the approach of course isn’t perfect. Due to the high rate of blitzing, there are often a lot of holes in the secondary that the quarterback can exploit if they see the blitz coming and have enough time to deliver a throw. These openings led to the Broncos allowing the highest completion percentage to opposing offenses in the NFL to start the season. 

Now, if you take that completion percentage stat in a vacuum, you’d probably expect the team to have one of the worst defenses in the NFL. However, as it’s obvious from the points I’ve made earlier, it’s actually the opposite. The Broncos are able to get away with their high blitz rate and even a high completion percentage, thanks to having a strong group of corners, with Pat Surtain II, Riley Moss, and Ja’Quan McMillian all playing great football right now.

Normally, a high completion percentage would suggest corners are losing their assignment, but again, this is more related to the openings allowed by the team’s blitzes. So where the corners have been making their impact is by staying with their assignments and either being right on top of them in one-on-one man coverage situations making throws more difficult or are ready to pounce on underneath targets. This can be seen in the low yards per attempts allowed by the defense as previously mentioned but also by the team allowing the third-fewest yards after the catch in the NFL. 

Again, this type of scheme, with such a high blitz rate with frequent safety blitzes that leave the backside of the defense open, is often a recipe for disaster. Add on that despite the breakout season Zach Allen has been having, I would still consider the defense to be lacking an elite pass rusher that is often necessary to get pressure fast enough to make this type of scheme work. However, the Broncos have a group of corners that make this crazy aggressive scheme feasible and overwhelming for quarterbacks. 

Is it Sustainable?

While the team is playing great thanks to the pressure they can manufacture and how their corners cover the holes, I’m concerned that an injury at corner will impact them greater than the injury would for any other team. If one of Surtain II, Moss, or McMillian were to go down, I’m afraid that the opposing offense would target their sub, and it could cause the whole defense to fall apart. Injuries are always hypotheticals so it can feel silly to try to project or expect an injury. However, they are a part of the game and are hard to avoid.

I’m also concerned that teams will become more prepared for the blitzes Joseph is throwing at them. Joseph could keep finding ways to send new and unexpected blitzes at offenses. However, if teams get enough film as the season goes on they could begin to more easily predict how to beat the blitzes.

Even if the defense does begin to falter as the year goes on, it's accomplishing its primary goal of keeping the offense in games while Bo Nix adjusts to the NFL. As the season goes on and Nix becomes more comfortable, the defense hopefully shouldn’t need to be such a force to give them a chance to win. So, for now, though a lot of attention goes towards Sean Payton since he has more name recognition, Vance Joseph deserves more credit for the team’s recent success and will be just as much, if not more, of a reason why the team is competitive in games this year.