Zach Allen is playing the best football of his career.
He authored a dominant, 3.5-sack outing Saturday night at Cincinnati to raise his season total to 8.5.
He’s been a constant on the field for the Broncos this fall, missing one game due to a heel injury but playing 90% of Denver’s defensive snaps in the other 15.
When the fan voting portion of the Pro Bowl selection process wrapped on Dec. 23, he was second among AFC defensive tackles in voting.
All of that wasn’t enough to get him a Pro Bowl nod, however. In fact, it doesn’t appear to have even come particularly close.
The AFC starters are Pittsburgh’s Cameron Heyward and Kansas City’s Chris Jones and Baltimore’s Nnamdi Madubuike made the roster as well.
Allen, meanwhile, was named a fourth alternate to the AFC team Thursday morning, perhaps the most surprising result among three Denver starters and eight total alternates.
Allen’s blown by his previous career-best total in the sack department (5.5 in 2022 with Arizona) so far this season playing opposite John Franklin-Myers in the middle of Denver’s defense. While Franklin-Myers, D.J. Jones, Malcolm Roach and Jordan Jackson rotate by situation, Allen’s in the game almost all the time for Vance Joseph’s group.
“They play a different position, but I had (former Saints defensive lineman) Cam Jordan for all those years in New Orleans, and he was the same way,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said last month. “… When you saw play No. 58, it looked like play No. 8. So it’s certainly credit to him and his conditioning. Some guys have that staying power and that stamina and strength and they’re generally bigger guys.
“It’s hard to do if you’re a smaller player because you have to expend energy down-in and down-out.”
Allen’s 65 pressures are a career-best, the No. 9 mark in the league this year and the most among NFL defensive tackles. He’s posted a double-digit pressure rate (11.3%) for the second straight season since the Broncos signed him as a free agent in March 2023.
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