Broncos disastrous defensive start doomed 2023 season. Here's why they should be better (2024)

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Alex Singleton thought the transition, and the accompanying translation it required, would be seamless.

The inside linebacker thrived under defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero in 2022, when he helped the Denver Broncos create a top-10 defense, by numerous metrics, in a scheme largely similar to the one Denver had played under Vic Fangio the prior three seasons. When Evero left to take the same job with the Carolina Panthers, the Broncos and first-year head coach Sean Payton hired Vance Joseph as the replacement. Joseph, previously Denver’s head coach in 2017 and 2018, arrived with the intention of leaving much of Evero’s verbiage in place. It was a way of lessening the learning curve that comes with a scheme change. No Duolingo account required.

Players and coaches felt like they were on the same page — until they weren’t.

“We (as players) were trying to do one thing and (coaches) were trying to help us, and nothing meshed,” Singleton said. “That’s what happened to us the first five weeks.”

What happened to the Broncos during that stretch went down as one of the worst starts to a season for a defense in NFL history. It was a period of futility low-lighted by a 70-point yield against the Miami Dolphins in Week 3. The Broncos produced the worst-ever DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) for a defense through five weeks, data that goes back to 1981. It wasn’t just that the Broncos weren’t playing well. It’s that they often looked lost during the team’s 1-4 start, a hole that ultimately swallowed Denver’s playoff hopes.

It has all created a clear goal for Denver’s defense as the 2024 season approaches: create a cohesion that is evident and effective from the start.

“I would say, in your second year with the same scheme, that’s going to happen naturally,” Joseph said during the team’s minicamp earlier this month. “It’s going to be easier for the players to grasp the system. We expect to play better early and that’s the bottom line.”

It would be hard for the Broncos to play worse than they did during the first five games last season. Denver, as just one measure of its early failure, allowed 938 rushing yards during that stretch. It was the highest rushing total allowed by a team through the opening five games in more than two decades. The performance was damaging enough to the Broncos when they had a veteran quarterback in Russell Wilson running the offense. Avoiding a repeat is even more vital this season when considering they will be debuting a new Week 1 starter — Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham or Zach Wilson — with far less experience.

Some of the internal optimism the Broncos have for a more sound defensive performance, from start to finish, is rooted in some of the personnel and coaching changes made this offseason. Veteran John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach represent demonstrable upgrades to the defensive line depth that was sorely lacking in 2023.

“Last year with the rush defense, it wasn’t every game, it was just spotty,” Joseph said. “I think having those two guys inside to hold a point for us and to change the (line of scrimmage), that’s important. With our run defense, both guys have a history of doing that. So that should help us tremendously.”

The Broncos look different in the secondary after releasing veteran safety Justin Simmons, whose 30 interceptions since entering the NFL as Denver’s third-round pick in 2016 are the most in the league during that span. He is being replaced by free-agent acquisition Brandon Jones and a rotating cast that includes veteran P.J. Locke and rookie-contract players Caden Sterns and JL Skinner. Tying it together is new secondary coach Jim Leonhard, who Payton hired to replace Christian Parker. The Broncos are bullish on the former NFL safety’s ability to develop the young players Denver will need to rely upon in the secondary.

“It’s crazy, just the different things he brings to the table,” Locke said. “Having that background, he’s taught me some things I didn’t really know about. I think he’s going to help take everybody’s game to the next level.”

The biggest reason to believe the Broncos’ defense can rebound from its worst statistical season of this eight-year, playoff-less era, Singleton contends, is that they know what they are doing. He said the defense was “flying around” at a more connected level during the offseason program than at any point last season. But perhaps more importantly, Singleton said, the unit has a better plan for quickly fixing things when it hits inevitable snags.

“I think it’s just communication,” said the 30-year-old linebacker, who has taken on a larger leadership role during an offseason that has seen Denver lose vocal leaders in Simmons and Josey Jewell. “It’s a lot more not just assuming a (new) guy knows (a call). It’s been a lot more talking, like, ‘Hey, you’re here. These are our drops in this situation. This is where I’ll be if it’s a blitz. This is what I’m reading on if you’re dropping off me.’ It’s just being more verbal about it early on.”

The Broncos have a challenging start to their schedule. The first five weeks include three road games, including the opener in Seattle and then back-to-back East Coast games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets. The home games in that span are against Wilson and his new team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Las Vegas Raiders, a division foe the Broncos haven’t defeated since 2019. If the Broncos are going to emerge from that stretch with hope about the rest of the season, it will be because their defense not only avoided a disastrous start, but actually set a winning tone.

“We know that we’ve got to start hot,” Singleton said. “Whoever is going to play quarterback is going to be a younger guy in this system, so we know what we have to do. We’re going to be better.”

(Top photo of Alex Singleton: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)

Nick Kosmider is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Denver Broncos. He previously covered the Denver Nuggets for The Athletic after spending five years at the Denver Post, where he covered the city’s professional sports scene. His other stops include The Arizona Republic and MLB.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKosmider