PFF Has Doubts About Broncos Paying Zach Allen Instead of Dre'Mont Jones
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With all the hullabaloo surrounding the Denver Broncos pouring copious resources into improving their porous offensive run game, perhaps the team's best signing from Day 1 of the 'legal tampering' period was that of defensive lineman Zach Allen.
Coming off of a career year, Allen accumulated 21 tackles, 21 run stops, and 35 pressures while playing all across the Arizona Cardinals' defensive front, and the Broncos are banking on his season, at just age 25, being just the beginning of him wreaking havoc on opposing offensive lines.
Signing a three-year deal worth $45.75 million with $32.5 million guaranteed, the Broncos paid slightly less to a player that has had a lower volume of impact play than Denver's previous inside-outside pass rusher Dre’Mont Jones, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks. Whether or not that will prove to be a smart move for the Broncos remains to be seen, but signing a 6-foot-4, 285-pound defensive lineman who can rush the quarterback and stop the run from a number of spots up front offers a skill set this defense lacked prior to Monday's signing.
Despite not being far off from Pro Football Focus’ projected value for Allen, the analytics site did not grade the move very strongly for Denver, giving the fit/need grade a solid B, and the value grade a C+.
The Broncos lost Dre’Mont Jones in free agency and replaced him with Zach Allen, who cost them slightly less than what Jones received on the market. The Broncos are paying Allen at the top of the market with this deal, and he reunites with his defensive coordinator in Arizona, Vance Joseph.
From a broad perspective, Allen has registered one season with more than 30 pressures and has never played a full season in his time in the NFL. 2022 was his best year from a grading perspective, totaling career highs in run-defense grade (67.4) and pass-rush grade (71.6). With this deal, it appears the Broncos expect Allen to continue ascending and become an interior force for them for the next couple of years.
PFF is perhaps not as high on Allen's run defense or upside, but other analytics tell a different story. According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, he had the second-highest rate of tackling opposing ball carriers for a loss or no gain in 2022 at 5.5%.
The only defensive tackle to outrank Allen in this metric was none other than arguably one of the best defensive players of all time Aaron Donald.
Entering the 2023 season, Allen will only be 26 years old. Perhaps his 2022 campaign was an outlier, and he will regress to the form of previous seasons, but giving the Broncos a better supporting cast than that of his former team, on top of how much Denver’s new defensive coordinator Vance Joseph wanted to bring him over from the Cardinals, this contract seems as likely as any the team consummated to be perceived as a bargain in hindsight.
The Broncos got better in the trenches this week. Don’t sleep on their addition on the defensive side of the lines of scrimmage.
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