Zach Allen Expects Record-Breaking Season From Broncos' 2026 Defense

Last season, the Denver Broncos and their pass rush had a dominant campaign––no doubt about it.

And really, for as strong as their secondary was, being led by the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year and All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II, a ton of success from the Broncos' defense stemmed from their elite pass rush.

Throughout the 2025 season, the Broncos stood alone at the top of the NFL for total sacks with 68 and pressures with 377. For any offensive line––and perhaps more importantly, any quarterback–– up against this Denver defense, it was sure to be a long day to try and stop this group in the trenches.

Now heading into 2026, the Broncos are gearing up for a similarly dominant year of production for their defense.

Most of their key fixtures in the front seven are back in the fold, have another season of experience and offseason of development to work with, and could be creeping towards an even better campaign than the one they're fresh off of.

Zach Allen Expects Broncos to Break Sack Record

With that in mind, the expectations inside the Broncos' building for how their pass rush could perform this season are already looking pretty steep when asking a guy like Zach Allen, who made his debut appearance as a First-Team All-Pro selection in 2025, and looks to not lose a step for this season.

In fact, he foresees a record-breaking year from the Broncos' defense––going as far as to say that he expects Denver to break the all-time single-season team sack record for the upcoming season.

“In this league you’ve kind of always got to keep on finding ways to get better and adjusting and all that,” Allen said, via the Denver Post.

“It also helps when you’ve got [Vance Joseph] dialing stuff up that helps us get one-on-ones. We’ve got a lot of good guys and that’s going to create a lot of opportunities for people. We came close to the sack record last year and we fully expect to break it this year.”

Why Allen's Claim Isn't Ridiculous to Believe

Of course, any time that you state you're going to break an all-time record as confidently as Allen seems, it's bound to catch some significant attention from the masses.

But in reality, Allen and the Broncos might not be too far off from achieving that goal.

Nov 6, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos defensive end Zach Allen (99) reacts against the Las Vegas Raiders during the first half at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The current mark for the all-time single-season sack record is held by the 1984 Chicago Bears; not quite the historic 1985 squad that many like to note as one of the best teams in NFL history, yet a pretty dang good defense nonetheless. Their record stands at a whopping 72 sacks, which has remained untouched for over 40 years.

The 2025 Broncos, however, weren't too far off from reaching that goal themselves this past year. Their 68 sacks were just four away from tying that historic mark, and slots them in as top-five all time in the category. Pretty impressive stuff.

This year, though, this same Broncos defense is looking to rise even higher than they did just one year ago.

While they won't have John Franklin-Myers' production to lean on this time around, who totaled 7.5 sacks himself in 2025, they do still have Allen's pass-rushing prowess to combine with Jonathan Cooper.

And of course, Nik Bonitto is still holding things down as the leader of that pass-rush unit, who found his way to the quarterback for a career-high 14.5 times this past year as well.

Pairing those three together, that's 29 sacks from those three alone. That doesn't even factor in the presence of eight players down the roster who collected multiple sacks across the 2025 season outside of those three names.

Bottom Line

So long as the Broncos can replenish the production lost by Franklin-Myers with their young pieces down the depth chart, and the presence of Allen, Cooper, and Bonitto hold their own as they did in 2025, maybe a record-breaking season on the defensive line could truly be on the horizon in the Mile High.

And when that production in the trenches is paired up with the talent that the Broncos boast in their secondary, that might just be enough to truly lift the Broncos to their ceiling of being a Super Bowl defense.

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