The Denver Broncos had a special defensive unit in 2015 when they marched to a Super Bowl title, but overall the franchise enjoyed a truly remarkable decade of defensive dominance. The rise began from the ashes left behind by Josh McDaniels, but once Von Miller joined the team the defensive play became good and stayed good.
Anthony Reinhard put together a visual for all teams defensive efficiency over the last decade. The Broncos fared pretty well too.
Defensive performance doesn't typically carry over year-to-year at the same level as offensive performance, but there are undoubtedly still teams who saw protracted defensive success (or lack thereof) in the last decade. pic.twitter.com/jInKKgmUC6
— Anthony Reinhard (@reinhurdler) July 14, 2020
A few other teams enjoyed the type of success Denver has had here. The Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks being the main challengers over the last 10 years. The Arizona Cardinals were surprisingly good for a long time until they hired Vance Joseph. Meanwhile, the Raiders were a laughable excuse of competitive defensive play during the same span.
The Broncos are poised for another great season defensively, but could the writing be on the wall for this stretch of great defensive play? Spotrac noted on Tuesday that outside of Bradley Chubb, the entire Broncos defense will enter 2020 on contract years if you include options and outs. That’s disconcerting.