Is the Broncos Secondary the Greatest of All Time?

Before we even begin let’s address the elephant in the room. Yes the title of this article is 100% click bait and it must have worked if you are reading this now. With all the discussion of “G.O.A.T’s” and “The best ever” surrounding the NFL (mostly with one 39 year old quarterback taking the center stage of these conversations) you are bound to find at least one article on every sports website that covers football labeled “Is (Insert NFL player or players here) the Greatest of All Time”?

However, I don’t write this piece just to hit the goat shaped Iron while its hot and get a few more clicks (that’s part of it, believe it or not, getting more eyes on your website is the goal of any sports.com), but I really want to consider this question thoroughly, because there is an argument to be made when one says “The Denver Broncos secondary is the greatest of all time”, and the reason for it is simple, but has a solid foundation.

Now, to begin, if there is one thing the public is sick of hearing about, its Denver fans talking about their “D”. The “D” that finished the 2015 season #1 overall, the “D” that whacked Tom Brady so hard in the 2015 AFC championship they actually sent him back in time to when he was 35 (That’s why age is not effecting him), the “D” that let Manning ride off into the sunset by bringing the superman back down to earth in Super Bowl 50, and the “D” that seemed to be the team’s only saving grace in the 2016 season, because their offense was more anemic than an under-fed baby horse. If there is one thing we are all aware of it’s that the “D” is good in Denver, and their secondary is a large part of what elevates the Broncos defense, along with players like Von Miller and Shane Ray taking offensive linemen to school and quarterbacks to the hospital.

In the 2016 regular season Denver finished first in passing yards allowed, with only 2,972 being thrown on the boys in orange and blue, that’s 254 yards less than the overall #1 ranked defense from 2016, the Houston Texans. One might think the simple answer to this question may be to take that 2,972 yards the Broncos allowed and see where it ranks on the “All time fewest passing yards allowed”, and in doing so you’d see that the 1934 Philadelphia Eagles, allowed 2,427 less yards than the 2016 Broncos, with only 545 passing yards thrown on Red Kirkman and the boys (Don’t know who that is? He was a member of the 1934 Eagles, yes I really did do my research here). However, before you Philadelphia fans start printing “Best secondary in the NFL, Circa 1934” on green T-shirts, you need to know there was only 1,606 yards thrown in total that year (which means the 1934 Eagles blocked 33% off all total yards thrown, so credit given where credit is due). In 2016 the total amount of yards thrown was 123,639. That means that the total amount of yards thrown in 1934 would amount to a little over 1% of total yards thrown in the NFL season. This is due to there being more teams, an evolving league and the existence of Drew Brees, who threw well over the equivalent of three 1,934 passing yard seasons in 2016 alone. Basically, you can’t simply rely on the total defensive season numbers to answer the main question of “Is the Broncos Secondary the greatest of all time”, so I’m not even going to go into amount of interceptions or defensive points. Instead, I believe the likes of Chris Harris Jr., Bradly Roby, and Aqib Talib deserve to be in this conversation, because of a list of similarly talented, but arguably more recognizable names and one simple fact connecting them.

TY Hilton, AJ Green, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Julian Edelman, Amari Cooper. In 2016 none of these players had more than 100 yard games when matched with the Broncos secondary, and they all averaged for less then five receptions. In the modern day pass heavy league, when defending top receivers that are catching passes from the likes of Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, and Tom Brady, can be almost impossible for some teams, the Broncos secondary has always come up big. We are in the age of top talent that comes with the air ball, and yet Denver, for two season now, has kept the modern offensive giants such as the Patriots, Steelers, and the whole, very talented AFC West division guessing on how to beat them in the pass game with no clear answer having surfaced after two season of increasing dominance. It’s a short simple argument, but one that has a considerable foundation and puts the Broncos secondary in this conversation. Heading into the 2017 season still largely intact, there is no question on who will start with the best pass protection in the NFL, because the Denver Broncos have one, if the not the greatest secondary’s of all time.

Written by Connor Hoehn, @UndraftedPunter