Ask around about the best secondary in the National Football League, and you’ll likely get more than a few fingers pointing towards the Denver Broncos.
The “No Fly Zone” name speaks for itself, but with their play comes a swagger unmatched by virtually any other unit in the NFL.
“One thing with those guys, and I’ve said it before in the past, when I came in right away those guys all had a chip on their shoulder,” defensive coordinator and former defensive backs coach Joe Woods said after practice on Sunday. “You want to call it pride. When they all come out to compete they hate to get beat.”
That swagger is not a bad thing. They’ve earned it, and continue to back it up. When other teams manage any kind of success against them, they take it as an insult.
“It’s not perfect,” Woods said of his secondary. “They’ll complete a couple of passes on us, but those guys take it personal. That’s the thing I love about them.”
The attitude that Woods speaks of is becoming infectious. According to Woods, he is beginning to see traces of the same swagger making its way through some of the younger players in the secondary.
“You can see that whole back end,” Woods said. “You can see the young guys starting gravitate and become the same type of players in terms of their attitude.”
According to second-year safety Will Parks, an attitude is inevitable when you’re around the No Fly Zone.
“When I got drafted here, a lot of people were like, ‘That couldn’t have been a more perfect fit for you,’ and now I’m starting to get answers as to why they said that,” Parks said on Monday. “And that’s because everybody back there has an attitude when they’re playing football, but at the same time, it’s for a good purpose. We all have one common goal, and that’s to win, and we’re going to do it by any means necessary.”
A sixth-round selection out of Arizona in 2016, Parks played in all 16 games for the Broncos last season. He recorded 22 tackles, and one interception. After his first year as a member of the secondary, Parks sees how the intensity in his attitude has changed as he spends more time with safeties T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart and cornerbacks Chris Harris and Aqib Talib.
“If you’re in our way, you’ve got to get out of our way,” Parks said. “We’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do to get you out of our way. That’s basically kind of how me and Justin [Simmons] approach the game, and we’ve been approaching the game that way, but being around four All-Pros, there is no way that you can stoop down to a level under them, if not go above them to try to reach new heights and make them better.”
Parks knows that his drive to compete alongside the No Fly Zone only prepares him more for when his number is called.
“That way when it is your time to fully shine, you can get out there and move just as fast as they do.”
