When NFL teams descended on the 2019 scouting combine in Indianapolis, they were bombarded with defensive front-line talent.
By the time the draft rolled around, teams spent 10 of the first 19 picks on defensive linemen and edge rushers, including the likes of Nick Bosa, Quinnen Williams, Dexter Lawrence, and Jeffery Simmons. Along with that star-studded group, a pair of somewhat less-heralded players shined.
Player A: 6-foot-4, 281 pounds. 40-yard dash: 5.00 seconds. Broad jump: 112 inches. Vertical: 32.5 inches. Shuttle: 4.36 seconds. Three-cone: 7.34 seconds.
Player B: 6-foot-3, 281 pounds. 40-yard dash: 5.12 seconds. Broad jump: 110 inches. Vertical: 31.5 inches. Shuttle: 4.53 seconds. Three-cone: 7.71 seconds.
Player A was drafted No. 65 overall. Player B went six picks later. Over the past three seasons, they’ve played 1,850 defensive snaps over 41 games and 1,892 snaps over 42 games, respectively. They each signed three-year contracts upon reaching free agency this offseason. Player A got slightly more guaranteed money and Player B got a slightly higher average annual value.
Player A: Zach Allen, the former Arizona defensive lineman who signed with Denver on the first day of free agency for three years and up to $45.75 million ($32.5 million guaranteed).
Player B: Dre’Mont Jones, the former Broncos defensive lineman whom Denver let hit free agency and subsequently sign a three-year deal for up to $51 million ($30 million guaranteed) with Seattle.
Through their rookie contracts, Allen has generally been considered the superior run defender and Jones has put together better pass-rush numbers. Now, they’ve switched divisions.
The Broncos’ defensive roles will change slightly under new defensive coordinator Vance Joseph but Denver will be counting on Allen to in essence replace Jones.
“One of the ‘musts’ (in free agency) was Dre’Mont and/or that position,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said late last month in Arizona. “And we didn’t feel like it was deep.”
“Dre’Mont was a really good player for us and wish him all the best in Seattle,” general manager George Paton said. “Zach, we feel is really good in the run game, provides some inside pass-rush as well. When you watch tape of Zach, it’s just the way he plays. He’s relentless, he’s all over the field. He can play the run and rush the passer.”
Allen, 25, missed the final four games of the 2022 season with a hand injury that required surgery, but to that point was putting together his best season. Over the first 13 games, he had 5.5 sacks (25 pressures, per Pro Football Reference) and eight passes defended. And Allen should benefit from continuity, too, in Denver, considering he gets to continue playing under Joseph, the same defensive coordinator he spent his first four professional seasons with.
“Vance knows Zach and just as important, Zach knows Vance,” Jacksonville defensive line coach Brenston Buckner, who coached Allen as Arizona’s defensive line coach in 2020-21, told The Post. “I talked to him when he made his decision and said, ‘You’re one of the few people that hit it big in free agency and goes to a new team but gets to play in the same defense on a new team. It’s set up for success.
“You don’t have to do nothin’ but change the color of your uniform and your address. You’re going to have the same language, you know the business, you know everything. It’s just professional repetitive actions that you’re going to do. You don’t have to change anything, don’t have to change your stance. You just get better at what you’re already good at over and over again.
“That plays to him and it’s only going to make him a better player.”
Joseph clearly saw a player with the Cardinals that continually improved. During the season, he told reporters in Arizona that Allen’s “main issue” early in his career was putting on size and gaining strength. By the time Year 4 rolled around, Allen had made enough progress on those fronts to hold up in the trenches.
“Zach matured as a player,” Buckner said. “Not that he was immature, but you just saw him become more understanding of what his superpower was. Zach’s superpower is the way he sees the game mentally. You’re not going to out-study him, he’s going to know the playbook in and out, he’s going to know what all 11 guys are doing on defense. He’s going to know formations and tendencies of offensive guys.
“Once he got to the point where he could slow the information down in his mind that he was taking in, his natural ability took over.”
Injuries have cost Allen games in each of his first four seasons, however, which probably represents the biggest risk in Denver’s decision to sign him. The most serious setback came in his rookie year when he missed all but the first four games of the season to a neck issue. In 2020, a leg injury cost him three games. Then, in 2021, he played the stretch run of the season through an ankle injury that he admitted later — after postseason surgery — was almost akin to playing on a broken leg.
After the ankle procedure, he put together an impressive first 13 games in 2022 before injuring his hand against New England. In addition to his work against the run, Allen logged a 14% pass rush win rate, according to ESPN’s stats. That mark tied for eighth-best among defensive tackles and checked in just behind Jones, who tied for fifth at 16%.
The breakout did not surprise Buckner.
“You could steady see him building,” said the former 12-year NFL veteran, who is entering his 10th season as a defensive line coach in the league. “One thing that people in Denver and his teammates in Denver and the fans in Denver (will see) is Zach has an unbridled passion to be successful on the field. I call it being a professional jerk, which is a good thing. He’s going to go hard. He hates to lose a rep in practice. He hates to make a mental mistake…You’re talking about a guy that has talent and has that level of work ethic, his success was just a matter of time.”
Time played a role in Allen landing in Denver, too.
Paton and the Broncos’ pro personnel staff — along with defensive line coach Marcus Dixon — knew Jones as a player but the sides hadn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension. By the time Payton got settled into the job in early February and then hired Joseph as his defensive coordinator late in the month, free agency was closing in.
“There was interest early in the season. I guess during the year, there was an offer made,” Payton said. “In the end, it’s pretty difficult. It’s a week before prom and you’re trying to figure out if Sally Sue is going to go with you.”
Instead of making a final, hard charge at Jones, the Broncos turned to Allen, a player Payton described as, “smart, tough, loves football, plays hard. I mean, all the things that we’re looking for.”
Buckner predicted when the offseason program gets rolling, Allen will be, “teaching everybody. The players, the coaches. That’s just how Zach is. He’s very knowledgeable and he’s one of those guys, he wants his teammates to understand the game.”
That wasn’t the only prognosticating Allen’s former coach did. He thinks the next chapter of Allen’s career will be his best yet.
“I’m not surprised he turned into the player he’s supposed to be,” Buckner said. “And look at it, he’s only 25. He’s just a baby. Denver’s going to get the good years. Denver’s getting the prime years. Three years from now, Zach will be a different, better player than he is right now.
“That’s the trajectory he has by the way he works.”
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