In today’s day and age, statistics are more important than ever. They’re no longer just a measurement of success; they’re a determinant of ability. Whether it’s in basketball, football or baseball, the new generation of talent evaluators are often grabbing their computer to look at the advanced analytics before they turn on the tape.

Just last week, the Los Angeles Daily News ran a piece detailing how Ivy Leaguers are slowly taking over general manager positions from actual “baseball guys.”

In the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies made ripples around the sports community by hiring John Hollinger as their Vice President of Basketball Operations in 2012. Previously, Hollinger’s basketball experience came as a writer and analyst at ESPN; he’s most well-known for creating his Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which is widely used as the best way to measure a player’s overall performance.

Football has always lagged behind when it comes to advanced statistics, but with the success of sites like Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders, more and more people are starting to use these hard-to-understand statistics in their analysis — even if too many do take PFF’s ratings as gospel.

However you view advanced statistics, though, there’s no denying that they’re interesting; if anything, they should make reevaluate some of your blindly-held beliefs.

After 10 games, here are some interesting things PFF’s advanced analytics tell us about the Denver Broncos:

The Broncos are in elite company:

With an overall grade of 97.3, the Denver Broncos only trail the Patriots, Panthers, Cardinals and Falcons. As you might expect, that grade is largely buoyed by the defense, who’s 139.2 grade is over 20 points higher than the next closest team.

Offensively, Denver’s -44.4 grade clocks in at 23rd overall.

Still, the Broncos’ overall grade puts them in elite company; if defense really does win championships, as they say, don’t be surprised if that unit continues to carry the team to wins on the field and in the stat book.

Penalties and composure:

If you feel like penalties are the only thing holding the Denver Broncos’ defense back from being an absolutely dominant group, you’re right.

While grading out at or near the top in every one of PFF’s defensive metrics, the Broncos are weighed down by their -13.6 penalty grade, worst in the league. And I’m sure nearly every Broncos fan out there could have seen that one coming from a mile away.

Defense First:

According to PFF, four out of the Broncos’ top-five players are all on the defense, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. That lone offensive player may, though.

By far and away, the Broncos best offensive player is Evan Mathis, who clocks in at 20.1. The next closest player is Demaryius Thomas, with a grade of 8.6. In fact, over half of the Broncos offense graded out negatively in PFF’s metrics.

Defensively, it’s a much different story. Von Miller (33.9), DeMarcus Ware (13.6), Chris Harris Jr. (13.6) and Derek Wolfe (13.4) lead a group that includes 16 players with a positive grade.

Slot dominance:

While Chris Harris Jr. is no longer considered a “slot cornerback,” he still plays 33 percent of his snaps inside, and he’s just as good as ever. In fact,  Harris is far and away the best slot corner in the NFL, as quarterbacks have a 43.8 quarterback rating when targeting Harris in the slot; no other corner is holding quarterbacks under a 75 quarterback rating.

And as an all-around corner, Harris isn’t doing too shabby, either. With a 13.6 grade, he only trails Tyrann Mathieu and Josh Norman for the honor of being the league’s top cornerback.

If he can keep this up through the rest of the season, this will mark the fourth straight year in which Harris will grade out as a top-six cornerback; nobody else can make that distinction.

From the inside out:

Everybody loves to talk about the Broncos two outside linebackers — Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware — but there inside backers are just about as impressive.

After dealing with injuries all last season, Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall have finally developed into the dynamic duo many hoped for this year, and the numbers back it up. PFF has Trevathan graded out as the third-best inside linebacker in the NFL (trailing Luke Kuechly and Derrick Johnson), and Marshall is that far behind at six.