ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos defense was among the elite last season. No defense allowed fewer yards per play. Just one — the Houston Texans’ overpowering unit — allowed fewer total yards. Denver ranked fifth in defensive DVOA and No. 1 in success rate allowed last year. The Broncos led the league in sacks and ranked second in third-down defense.
By any reasonable standard, coordinator Vance Joseph’s unit was the best in orange and blue since the salad days of the “No-Fly Zone.”
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But something was missing: takeaways.
Just three teams forced fewer turnovers during the regular season last year than the Broncos, who finished tied for 26th with 14 takeaways. And it took a strong performance in the regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers’ “B” team with Trey Lance at the controls just to pull the Broncos farther from the cellar.
That’s what was missing last year. That the Broncos went 14-3 with what ended up being a minus-3 turnover margin was extraordinary; it was the second-best record ever compiled by a team with fewer takeaways than giveaways. Only the 2001 St. Louis Rams were better, and for them, it took having one of the most iconic and prolific offenses in league history — the “Greatest Show on Turf” that featured four Hall of Famers — in order to overcome being in the red.
So, just as Joseph has made it clear that last year’s accomplishments mean precisely bupkis for what lies ahead for his defense, he’s also established the task that can allow them to find another level: Generate more takeaways.
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BRONCOS WOULDN’T HAVE WON IN THE POSTSEASON WITHOUT FINDING THE TURNOVER TOUCH
The Broncos had some a bit of lousy luck with fumbles last year, recovering just four of 12 fumbles forced. But in the previous three seasons, Denver averaged 24.7 forced fumbles per season; its forced-fumble tally last year was the club’s lowest since 2021.
But in the divisional-round win over Buffalo, the Broncos reversed their form, forcing five Bills fumbles and recovering three of them. A pair of interceptions — including Ja’Quan McMillian’s overtime theft in which he wrested the football from Brandin Cooks — gave Denver its best takeaway day since Dec. 15, 2024 at Indianapolis, a span of 22 games (including postseason).
So they CAN do it. And that helps bolster Joseph’s message.
“That’s exactly what he preached, man, this year is taking the ball away,” safety Talanoa Hufanga said. “We did well in third downs and sacks and different things like that.
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Hufanga took it personally after a regular season in which he failed to intercept a pass while forcing one fumble. In the 10 games of 2023 prior to tearing his ACL, he picked off three passes and forced three fumbles. In 26 games since then, he has no interceptions and one forced fumble.
“A lot of it was me, man. I left a lot out there, in terms of interceptions,” he said.
“… When we looked at the lack of production, it starts with me, man. I gotta lead that better and get the guys on it to a group and put myself best out there to lead these guys.”
Of course, Hufanga has had some extenuating circumstances. Once he came back from the ACL injury in 2024 — his final season with the San Francisco 49ers — he dealt with wrist and ankle injuries. The wrist problem lingered into the offseason last year, which he said prevented him from working with the JUGS machine to catch ball after ball.
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With no such restrictions this time, he’s doubled his efforts with the JUGS.
“I would say the reason why I couldn’t get on the JUGS last year — and this is an excuse, I’ll be honest — [is that] I was coming off my wrist surgery,” he said. ”
“A lot of it was just really trying to get off — came from wearing a club during the game, and that was really uncomfortable,” he continued. “My hand eye coordination was not great. But that’s an excuse, and so, I own up to it, and I gotta be better for the team.”
Even then, Hufanga lamented the lost opportunities.
“If I’m being honest, just as a safety, I don’t know how I dropped all of them because some of them were just gimmes,” he said. “If I’m being real with you, man, they dropped right in my lap and I didn’t come out with them.
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“And at the end of the day, a lot of my teammates will say, ‘You ain’t living right,’ so, we gotta change that.”
It’s nearly impossible for Hufanga and the Broncos to improve on most of their defensive production last season. But takeaways are the one place where undevoured meat remains on the bone. This might change the success equation for the defense, but if it can generate turnovers at a brisker rate than last year, it has its best chance of avoiding the regression that often plagues defenses after a year in the stratosphere.