The Denver Broncos defense was one of the best units in the NFL for the past two seasons. Despite playing at a high level, there’s a level of internal reflection that Vance Joseph and his unit have that will help them become even better.
Denver Broncos defense understands where they need to improve in 2026
For most teams across the NFL, leading the NFL in sacks in back-to-back seasons and being the league’s best red zone defense and best third-down defense would have them coming into a new campaign entitled. That’s not the case with the Denver Broncos, who return a large core of last year’s starters.
One of the biggest areas of improvement for the Broncos’ defense coming into this season is trying to create more takeaways. Last year, despite leading the league in sacks, the defense didn’t generate many strip sacks. As a matter of fact, they had two last season. One in Week 1 from Ja’Quan McMillian and the other came in Week 18 from Nik Bonitto against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Punching the football out in those situations is something the defense is cognizant of, as is finding ways to snag more interceptions.
“There are always things to improve on,” Allen said. “That’s the really cool thing about this group is we’re just constantly trying to find new ways to get better. It all starts with ‘VJ’ (Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph). He sets such a high standard. Yes, we were good last year, but there were still a lot of things that we could have been better at and cleaned up. We want to be as consistent as we can be and play at the highest level that we can. It starts with right now taking it day-by-day. Playing with a good play style, and playing fast, and playing violent and correcting mistakes in the meeting room. Hopefully we get to the point where there are less mistakes but still have that fast, violent playstyle.”
Last week, Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton told us that the defensive focus coming into camp isn’t about learning the defense, because they are returning so much continuity, and that it’s about perfecting it.
For the first two days of padded practices, the defense has dominated the trenches, and it very much feels like they’re picking up right where they left off last season, despite the loss of John Franklin-Myers in free agency. Young guys like Eyioma Uwazurike, rookie Tyler Onyedim, Jordan Jackson, and Sai’vion Jones have all shown some flashes here early on in training camp, and that should benefit Joseph’s unit once again.
If they can play at the same level they did last season, but force more takeaways in 2026, the Broncos will be a heavy post-season favorite.