Broncos' Most Concerning Weakness Exposed by PFF

The Denver Broncos kick off training camp in less than three weeks. From there, we'll begin to get a bead on how Sean Payton's squad measures up in comparison with the mostly dismissive national takes on the Broncos.

Speaking of dismissive, Pro Football Focus recently ranked the Broncos' roster No. 20 in the NFL. While the analytics giant called the wide receiver corps Denver's biggest strength, the team's biggest weakness should reinforce the concern fans have entering 2023.

Biggest weakness in 2023: Pass Rush

In 2022, the Broncos put up the sixth-worst pass-rush grade (66.4) and did very little, if anything, to improve on it in the offseason. The only pass rusher to post a 70.0-plus grade and is returning from last season was Randy Gregory, who notched a 76.2 pass-rush grade on just 114 pass-rush snaps. Zach Allen was added from Arizona in free agency, but there isn’t a whole lot else to be excited about.

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It's a fair critique. The Broncos did sign three-time Pro Bowl rush linebacker Frank Clark, but only after news of Baron Browning's offseason surgery surfaced.

If the Broncos get a little luck by way of the injury bug, this could be a deeper position than currently meets the eye, though. Since entering the league as a Dallas second-round pick in 2015, the most games Gregory has started in a single season is 11, a mark set during his contract year.

The Broncos signed him to a five-year, $70 million contract the next spring. Between off-the-field suspensions and the injury bug, it's safe to say that Gregory hasn't come close to reaching his NFL potential.

But that realization should be more encouraging than discouraging. Payton moved mountains to shake up the Broncos' sports science and strength and conditioning program. Beau Lowery was hired as an executive to get all those ducks in a row, and Dan Dalrymple was brought in as the Broncos' strength and conditioning coach to execute the new philosophy.

When it comes to being snakebitten, the Broncos have nowhere to go but up. I feel optimistic that Lowery and Dalrymple will get the team's well-being arrow pointing upward.

If the Broncos can keep Gregory on the field for even three-quarters of the season, he's good for 6-8 sacks. If he could stay on the field all year, he'd be a double-digit sacks guy.

Clark can rush the passer, but he has only totaled double-digit sacks twice in his career, and both came while still playing on his rookie contract in Seattle. Since posting a career-high 13 sacks in 2018, he's averaged about six sacks per season.

If there's any plausible untapped potential in the Broncos' edge-rushing room, it's Browning, who notched six sacks last year in what was his first NFL exposure to playing the position. Browning underwent surgery this summer to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, and his availability to open the season is in doubt.

The Broncos can probably expect to get Browning on the field somewhere around the second quarter of the season. He'll need a few games to get his legs beneath him, and from there, as the third guy on the field behind Gregory and Clark, he could be a nice change-of-pace pass rusher, and the same could be said for 2022 second-rounder Nik Bonitto if he can turn a corner this year.

Also, don't discount the impact rookie third-rounder Drew Sanders could make as a pass rusher. The Broncos plan to play Sanders at inside linebacker, but he's a very talented pass rusher, finishing with 9.5 sacks last year at Arkansas.

It might be implausible to expect Sanders to approach double-digit sacks as a rookie, but used tactfully as a blitzer, the rookie could help add to the it-takes-a-village approach the Broncos will be using to pressure the QB this year.

Bottom Line

For the Broncos' pass rush to avoid being a true weakness, almost everything will have to go right in 2023. It would be unrealistic to expect that to happen, which means other guys are going to have to step up, like the aforementioned Allen.

One mitigating factor here is the arrival of Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator. He's a play caller with an aggressive mindset who's unafraid of throwing numbers at opposing quarterbacks when it comes to blitzing in critical situations. There may be times when Joseph has to rely more on well-timed blitzes in order to effectuate QB pressure.

One factor PFF isn't considering is Payton's new-look offense with Russell Wilson under center. If the Broncos can become even an average offense, it'll take a lot of pressure off the front seven, and create game situations where the defense is protecting a lead.

When such a lead stretches to, say, two scores, that's when opportunity knocks for a pass-rushing corps to truly pin its ears back and get after the QB.

Symbiosis.

The Broncos will need Lady Luck to smile upon them this year and a complementary team in order to assuage some of these defensive concerns entering the season.

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