Mile High Report
Heading into the 2025 season, many of us, myself included, overlooked safety Devon Key and did not think he belonged on the Denver Broncos 53-man roster. A lot of this stemmed from Key’s performance in 2024 in spot duty vs. the Baltimore Ravens. Lamar Jackson and company had their way with the Broncos’ secondary, and Key was unfortunately in the center of that mess. However, Key bounced back from that and made the Broncos’ 53-man roster in 2025 and would go on to become an often-overlooked but key member of the team.
I say often overlooked because what he did, and did very well, came on special teams. He set a single-season franchise record with 26 special teams tackles, beating Keith Burns’ previous record of 24, and established himself as one of the premier special teams players in the NFL.
Key would receive his flowers as he was named to the AP All-Pro team in 2025 as a special teamer.
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton met with the media a day before the announcement of the All-Pros and was hoping someone would ask him about Devon Key. He was obviously aware of the coming news and had some high praise for the Broncos All-Pro special teamer.
“I was hoping you were going to say his name. I just realized he’s had more special-teams tackles than anyone in the history of the Broncos. Every week, we give awards. Special team game balls, offensive and defensive game balls. His name comes up, and even in his play last week when he came on defense, he just steadily, quietly… Is he at [26]? We can talk about the extended game. I get it, but that’s hard to do in the kicking game now. That’s hard to do. Tomorrow we’ll get to talk about the other stuff… When I hear something, ‘In the history of,’ depending on where you’re at, but when you’re at Denver and you say, ‘In the history of,’ well then that means something. This place has played a lot of good football for a long time, and he’s tackled more people in the kicking game than anyone in the history of. I think there’ll be a lot of former special teamers, former defensive players, that would be like, ‘Wow. That’s something.’ There’s a grit to that and a toughness to that. I always love that story that [Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach Bill] Parcells told when they were beating somebody, but they were having trouble covering kicks. [Pro Football Hall of Fame LB Lawrence] Taylor had gotten tired of seeing these kick returns in this game, and he basically dismantled the kick coverage unit, and he picked 10 others, and it was the ‘Best we got,’ he called them. These guys just lined up across the field and covered a kick. They didn’t have lane integrity or anything. They just went down. Taylor was tired of seeing that ball start at midfield. I asked Bill, ‘What did...
