When looking at the Denver Broncos’ roster, many members of the fanbase will see a talent-rich assortment that was just a quality quarterback and coaching staff away from legitimately being competitive in the AFC.
However, that’s not what Pro Football Focus sees.
In a recent article ranking the top 101 best NFL players from the 2021 season, which has become an annual article for PFF, the Broncos didn’t have a single player mentioned. It’s the first time that the franchise didn’t have anyone included in PFF’s top 101.
That might come as a surprise to some, considering some of the talented players on Denver’s roster, but the Broncos received relatively poor grades from PFF across the board this season.
However, despite receiving poor grades, they still had players graded highly enough that it feels odd that they were left off the list. Melvin Gordon — the Broncos’ highest-graded player on the season (min. 350 snaps) — earned a better overall grade (77.8) than three players on PFF’s list (Demario Davis, No. 88, 77.2 grade; Brian Allen, No. 97, 74.8 grade; Javon Hargrave, No. 98, 67.3 grade). In fact, Denver had 11 players graded higher than at least one player on PFF’s top 101 and four players graded higher than multiple players on the list.
Now, the rankings aren’t just a list of the 101 highest-graded players in order, but it does seem odd that some of these lower-graded players were included ahead of Broncos that were supposedly superior in the eyes of PFF’s grading system.
Although no current members of the team made the list, Von Miller, who started the 2021 season with Denver before being traded to the Los Angeles Rams, made the list at the No. 24 spot.
“It once looked as if Miller’s star had started to fade, but a trade to Los Angeles and the chance of another Super Bowl reinvigorated him,” Sam Monson wrote, in a blurb that has to sting Broncos Country. “Against Tampa Bay in the playoffs, Miller notched his first double-digit pressure game since Week 8 of 2019, and he showed that he still has some gas left in the tank. His perennial dominance against the run has stayed intact, and while he might not generate a league-leading rate of pressure in the future, he can still be extremely effective in that area.”