Mile High Report
We ran through the offensive greats last week, so now it is time to kick off the Denver Broncos defensive greats. This one was a bit hard to divvy up since the defense can be a 4-3 traditional or a 3-4 type with edge specialties. After some discussion, we will do interior defensive line here and separate out the true edge rushers into its own category.
That freed us up to really focus on some of the greatest players in the trenches. I had to go with the master of the ‘head-slap’ in Tombstone Jackson, though he could be a hybrid into the modern edge rusher category. We’ll keep him here, though. I then went with three greats from the Broncos’ three Super Bowl titles before closing it out with an Orange Crush original.
Here’s where our Mile High Report staff landed on the top five for defensive line:
Scotty Payne: Jackson is an obvious one followed by Trevor Pryce and the Super Bowl 50-winning duo of Derek Wolfe and Malik Jackson. Broncos do not win a Super Bowl without either. I ended with current Bronco Zach Allen because he continues to be woefully underrated and is a damn good football player.
Chris Hart: The peaks of Trevor Pryce’s career are arguably the best of any interior defensive lineman in team history. A versatile player lining up at both tackle and end, Pryce was a four-time Pro-Bowler and two-time All-Pro for the Broncos from 1999 to 2002. Both Smith and Carter played a long time for Denver and were formidable during their respective gridiron eras. Kragen was an underrated member of the Broncos’ defensive line in the 1980s and early 1990s. My last spot goes to Zach Allen. Even though he has been here three seasons, I feel his overall impact on games was greater than what we saw from Derek Wolfe, who has been mentioned on a few lists.
Joe Mahoney: Pryce finished his career with 91 sacks and most of those were with the Broncos. Wolfe was critical to the success of the 2015 Broncos and also is a large part of why Von Miller will be in the Hall of Fame. Tombstone was best DT in the NFL for a period of three straight seasons 68-70 despite being undersized like Greg Kragen. Zach Allen has been one of the best DL in the NFL during his 3 NFL seasons in Denver. He finally earned first team All-Pro last season.
Sadaraine: Zach Allen is freakish at creating pressure and has been for years. Derek Wolfe was a really big reason all of...
