Broncos DL Zach Allen Joins Elite Company in Pass-Rush Metric

Speak to any player with experience doing battle in the trenches, and he'll speak glowingly about how Denver Broncos All-Pro defensive lineman Zach Allen goes about his business. 

Statistical analysis also backs up the eye test for the often overlooked Allen. Only J.J. Watt, T.J. Watt, Nick Bosa, and Aaron Donald have put up 40 QB hits in a single season since 2006. Allen joined them last season. 

Allen can count former NFL defensive end Chris Long among his admirers, who hit the Broncos' dominant defender with that astounding statistic during a recent appearance on his Green Light Podcast. Allen played down joining such esteemed company, but he explained how he'd like to convert a bigger percentage of those hits into sacks moving forward. 

"Anytime you can be thrown up with those guys, it's pretty special," Allen admitted to Long. "Honestly, like it's funny because I feel like when the hits were going on, everyone is like, 'Wow, look at all these hits, look at all these hits.' I'm kind of like, 'Well, f***, let me get some sacks out of it. Let me get one or two of them to turn into a sack.'" 

The Broncos' 63 team sacks led the league in 2024, with Allen contributing 8.5 of them from the inside, but that has done little to quench his thirst. After all, the Broncos' quest to retake the AFC West hasn't gotten any easier, with heavyweight quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert being joined by former Pro Bowler Geno Smith in Las Vegas. 

Coordinating the Attack

If anything, Allen says the Broncos' pass-rushing front wasn't always coordinated in the heat of battle, getting in each other's way at times in their collective zest to take down opposing quarterbacks. The focus will be on playing smart moving forward. 

"But honestly, it's funny because now, I'm starting to watch the tape back, everything like that. Just the guys that were rushing with, there's times where we're literally cutting each other off. There's one play in Cincinnati where Nik Bonitto hit an inside stab, and he's coming over, and at the last second, I boxed him out," Allen told Long. "Anybody on any play could kind of get it. So when you rush with four guys, it's awesome. But also, too, quarterbacks, they've got to get the ball out, or you're just going to lose out on the race to somebody else. But no, it's pretty special." 

Entering the 2025 NFL draft, few expected the Broncos to reinforce their defense with the 20th overall pick, but they threw a major curveball by selecting Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron. If having reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II on the backend wasn't enough, the prospect of Allen and company landing coverage sacks just increased greatly with the arrival of Barron in Vance Joseph's scheme. 

Despite the abundance of defensive riches in Denver, the ever-diligent and ambitious Allen isn't going to coast along. The push is firmly on delivering even more tangible results. 

"The big goal right now is just to kind of make sure it wasn't like a one-time thing," Allen said. "Kind of get the repeatability out of that. I think, maybe J.J. was the only one on that list that probably did it a couple of times or something like that, so we'll see how it plays out."