The Denver Broncos are looking to build upon their defensive breakout in 2024 with a strong encore season in 2025. Denver finished the season with the league’s third-best scoring defense and were seventh in yards allowed and defensive turnovers while ranking second-best in the league in both net yards per attempt passing and yards per carry.
It was home to the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, Patrick Surtain II. It was also, however, home to one of the most underrated defensive linemen in football — Zach Allen.
It was a brilliant season overall from Vance Joseph’s bunch, which stacked on top of their personnel foundation with free agent signings such as Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw from San Francisco this spring. Add in an incredible draft value with the addition of Jahdae Barron in the first-round of the 2025 NFL Draft? Yards and points will both likely be tough to come by in Denver once again in 2025.
The face of the Broncos defense is Surtain II, who was rewarded with a four-year, $96 million contract extension by the team ahead of the 2024 season and quickly proved the team right with such a dominant campaign immediately afterward. But now is the time for Denver to shift their eyes to the next big contract extension.
There aren’t many to choose from, as almost all of the standout players on the Broncos’ defense are under contract beyond the end of the 2025 season. As a matter of fact, three standout names are scheduled for free agency at the end of this upcoming season: John Franklin-Myers, Nik Bonnito and underrated star Zach Allen.
Franklin-Myers was a wonderful addition by Denver via trade this past season. And Bonnito has turned into a draft hit for Denver after a quiet rookie campaign. But Zach Allen should be the focus of the Broncos’ next big negotiation. Allen has been a two-year success story in free agency with the Broncos after signing a three-year, $45.75 million contract with the Broncos ahead of the 2023 season. In the two years since, Allen has put up big numbers that are matched by few players across the NFL — regardless of alignment as an inside or outside defender.
Allen, who is scheduled to earn $13.25 million in the final year of his current contract in 2025, is credited with 135 pressures and 23 tackles for loss over a whopping 1,875 snaps with Denver. There are 26 NFL defenders over the past two seasons with triple digit pressures and at least twenty tackles for loss; but when you categorize tackles for loss only on running plays, only 16 defenders have a dozen tackles for loss on run downs to go with triple digit pressures.
The Cream Of The Crop
- Maxx Crosby (148 pressures, 18 run TFL)
- Brian Burns (101, 18)
- Greg Rousseau (118, 18)
- Myles Garrett (169, 17)
- Nick Bosa (164, 17)
- TJ Watt (139, 16)
- Alex Highsmith (117, 15)
- Quinnen Williams (124, 15)
- Zach Allen (135, 14)
- Carl Granderson (119, 13)
- Montez Sweat (113. 13)
- Will Anderson (110, 13)
- Jonathan Greenard (128, 12)
- Danielle Hunter (146, 12)
- Nik Bonnito (104, 12)
- Jalen Carter (102, 12)
Needless to say, Allen’s in some rare company. And his presence among the rest of these names is that much more impressive when you consider how often Allen is aligned in interior gaps or playing head-up over offensive tackles. It’s a unique role that not many other members of this list can claim real estate on while living on the interior. Only Jalen Carter and Quinnen Williams serve as true interior defenders off of this list. That makes Allen’s presence and role unique and, by extension, more valuable given that he’s in the prime of his career — he will turn 28 years old in August.
Allen’s current annual average salary of $15.25 million ranks 29th among NFL defensive linemen. His deal, now entering into its third season, has become a great value based on the swelling salary cap. This, paired with it being the final year of his contract and the Broncos’ flexibility thanks to the presence of a rookie contract at the quarterback position, make it the right time and opportunity to lock Allen in on another contract.
Names like Rousseau, Quinnen Williams and Montez Sweat are earning between $20-25 million annually on their contracts while offering similar three-down production and the new wave of contracts at the position is coming.
The Broncos have elected not to restructure Allen’s contract this season despite having void years attached to the back end of his deal, which would have allowed the team to stash more money into future years. Still, if Allen is allowed to leave in free agency after the 2025 season, there will be more than $12 million in dead cap from his prior bonuses that will accelerate into the team’s 2026 salary cap. Those hits will stay spread out over multiple years if there’s a new deal in place.
The Broncos are, according to Spotrac, currently scheduled to own the 10th most salary cap space in the NFL in 2026. With Franklin-Myers, Allen, Bonnito and Courtland Sutton all looming as expiring contracts, Denver may need to pick and choose their spots on who to prioritize — although there could easily be enough money to go around if all continue to perform thanks to the cheap nature of Bo Nix’s deal.
Allen is the most unique talent of the bunch and has the production to back it up. This is the name the Broncos should pursue the extension with first.
