Broncos will land Cardinals DL Zach Allen in free agency
Free agency predictions are hard to nail down, but this makes too much sense for the Broncos.
2022 was a disaster for the Denver Broncos, but fortunately, the defense kept the year from being a complete disaster.
Part of the Broncos' defensive prowess was due to the play of stud defensive lineman Dre'Mont Jones. The fifth-year pro had arguably the best season of his career and it just so happened to come during the final year of his rookie contract.
In all, Jones has had a successful career in Denver. His 22.0 career sacks are 10th-most among all interior defensive lineman since 2019 and his 28.0 career TFLs are 15-most. He's certainly established himself as one of the NFL's complete defensive linemen.
All of this is obviously great for Jones because it's put him in position for a big payday in the form of 2023 NFL Free Agency. Players with his consistent production and skill set are very valuable due to the position he plays. The former third-rounder will instantly improve whatever defensive front he ends up on.
Therefore, it remains unclear as to whether or not the Broncos retain Jones -or his bookend partner in DeShawn Williams- in 2023. Ejiro Evero, Denver's previous defensive coordinator that both players loved to play for, is now the DC for the Carolina Panthers, who also have a little more than $23 million in cap room.
There's another plausible option in the Miami Dolphins. The 'Fins have both the cap room and the coaching connection in Vic Fangio (Evero is part of the Fangio tree) to make either player happy.
Either way, there's zero guarantee Jones is back in the Mile High City in 2023. Especially after the Broncos passed over their chance to use the franchise tag in order to at least keep Jones from testing/hitting the market.
The good news is there is great fallback option in case Jones or Williams move on from the Broncos: Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Zach Allen.
Allen, like Jones, was drafted in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft, except he was drafted by the Cardinals, obviously. Allen played all four years under current Broncos DC Vance Jospeh, who was the Cardinals DC at the time.
Allen's career got off to a slow start, but he rounded into a very good player by the end of the 2022 season.
Allen is similar to Jones in many ways. Both players are right around 6-foot-3ish and 281-pounds. They aren't the most athletically gifted guys on the field, but they have non-stop motors and they know how to use their length to their advantage. Allen and Jones are also very versatile and intelligent players, which are big helps in themselves.
Allen is an effective pass rusher as well as a solid run-stopper, too. Per Pro Football Focus, Allen graded out in the top-20 of all interior defensive linemen with at least 484 defensive snaps when it came to overall defense, run defense, and tackling in 2022. He graded out as the 23rd-best pass rusher among the 64 qualifying players.
His 15 quarterback hits were second-most among all qualifying interior defensive linemen and his 35 total pressures ranked 20th out of 64 players.
Allen's biggest strength, however, is his tackling. He graded out as the second-best tackler (71.3) among all qualifying interior defensive linemen and his miss rate of 5.1% was seventh-lowest.
And as aforementioned, all Allen knows is Joseph's defense since came into the NFL. There wouldn't be a learning curve, at all. And, Allen will cost considerably less than Jones.
And if the Broncos keep Jones around, Allen represents an upgrade over Williams.
In all, it makes way too much sense and it's easy to see why Allen will be a member of the Broncos defense in 2023.
