The good news for the Denver Broncos and their maligned defensive line is there’s really only one way to go from here.
PFF’s Sam Monson ranked the Broncos’ defensive line No. 31 out of 32 NFL teams in its preseason position group rankings on June 25, only ahead of the Arizona Cardinals in dead last.
“The Jets felt John Franklin-Myers was expendable, but he may walk onto the Broncos as their best defensive lineman,” Monson wrote. “Nothing better illustrates the gulf between the top and bottom of these rankings. Baron Browning, Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have all flashed pressure from the edge, but none has remained consistent. Zach Allen is solid but not the player the Broncos paid for, and rookie Jonah Elliss could force his way into the reckoning sooner rather than later.”
While the focus for metrics when it comes to defensive linemen/edge rushers seems largely focused on quarterback pressures and sacks, that’s not the only thing that makes a defensive line bad.
Breaking Down Denver’s Defensive Line Play in ’23
That Denver brings back most of its defensive line from last season and brings back an underperforming, underachieving player like Franklin-Myers could portend doom for the Broncos.
The Broncos were below average rushing the passer in 2023 — they tied for 21st in the NFL with 42 sacks and didn’t have an individual player in the Top 30 in the NFL in sacks. Outside linebackers Cooper (8.5 sacks) and Bonitto (8.0 sacks) were the top two in that category, although Bonitto only started four games.
Where the Broncos were truly miserable was against the run. Their run defense was ranked No. 30 in the NFL in 2023 with 2,331 total rushing yards allowed — an average of 137.1 yards per game.
When it came to making big plays on defense, almost no one was worse than the Broncos. They had zero interceptions returned for touchdowns and 1 fumble returned for a touchdown with a 35-yard scoop-and-score by Cooper against the Chicago Bears on Oct. 1.
Franklin-Myers: Lots of Money, Few Results
One thing we know for certain about professional sports contracts is that they’re an indicator more of what teams think a player will do in the future than what they’ve done in the past.
Even with that knowledge, some contracts defy common sense. Like the 4-year, $50 million contract extension Franklin-Myers got from the New York Jets in Oct. 2021 that included $30 million in guaranteed money.
Consider that in his first two NFL seasons before getting that contract, Franklin-Myers had a total of two starts and 5.0 sacks. He had a career year in 2021 with 35 tackles and 6.0 sacks in 16 starts but fell off the map the last two seasons — he had 5.0 sacks in 2022 and 3.5 sacks in 2023 and has never had more than 40 tackles in a season.
When the Jets obtained another defensive end via trade with Haason Reddick, Franklin-Myers and his massive salary became expendable and was traded to the Broncos in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick and agreed to a new contract for 2 years and $15 million, with $10 million guaranteed.
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