Months later, none were the wiser. Months later, one could’ve been forgiven for forgetting that Talanoa Hufanga ever wore a different jersey than Broncos orange. He made an All-Pro living in Denver in 2025 on learned instinct, teleporting from the back-end into opposing backfields to torpedo offensive concepts before they could even break the surface. No shred of uncertainty, in his flowing mane.
Months earlier, he had little idea what was going on.
He was one of a few newcomers to the Broncos’ offseason program in 2025, and felt like it, finding his place as one of the levers and pulleys in Vance Joseph’s defensive system. So Hufanga would glance across the field at his safety partner Brandon Jones. Or north, at All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II.
“Like, ‘Hey, what are we running right here?'” Hufanga recalled in June. “‘I’m still learning the defense.'”
He is not, anymore. Few consequential members of Joseph’s defense are still in the elementary stages, entering the coordinator’s fourth season in Denver. These Broncos will head into training camp for the 2026 season still carrying 10 of the 11 defenders who started Week 1 in 2025, and those 10 starters average out at 28 years old. Not long in the tooth, exactly. But far beyond baby teeth.
That organization-wide emphasis on retention, though, has embroiled Joseph in a unique paradox after a second straight year crafting a top-three NFL defense.
“I think the challenge is human nature,” Joseph said in June. “I told the guys the very first day (of the offseason) that we’re not chasing what we’ve done in the last two years, but we’re chasing the process that got us there.”
This Broncos defense has little room for complacency, now, largely betting on the same personnel in 2026 to capitalize on a Super Bowl window that the outfit opened in 2025. An entire offseason came and went without any obvious on-paper upgrades to Joseph’s units; instead, Denver actually moved on from two notable contributors in John Franklin-Myers and Dre Greenlaw to cut costs. The gang’s mostly back, as the rest of the NFL has retooled.
“Starting over and chasing the process is our goal,” Joseph said, “and being better than we were last year.”
But how does one of the league’s most fearsome defenses — tied for fifth all-time in single-season sacks in 2025 — improve without actual personnel upgrades? Much of that will fall on Joseph, in yet another audition for an eventual second chance at a head-coaching job. Much of that, too, will fall on individual growth within his depth chart, as All-Pros like Hufanga and edge rusher Nik Bonitto are a year older and a year wiser.
As veterans are set to report for training camp this coming Tuesday, that depth chart looks awfully similar to the one the Broncos finalized at the end of 2025’s camp. But there are still a handful of key positional battles to play out — with a particular mind to cornerback.
Here’s an early two-deep defensive projection before the Broncos march into the start of the (pre)season.
Defensive line
ٷ:Zach Allen, Sai’vion Jones
:D.J. Jones, Malcolm Roach
ٷ:Eyioma Uwazurike, Tyler Onyedim
Starting point:Here’s where roster shifting will be felt the most on Denver’s defense. John Franklin-Myers’ time as a Bronco expired the minute his contract did, through no fault of his own. Can’t pay everyone. The Broncos, evidently, felt they had enough quality depth in the room to cobble together snaps to fill Franklin-Myers’ 7.5-sack void, and drafted to their defensive line in April by taking a body-type carbon copy in Onyedim in the third round.
The process of recongealing, though, might not be so smooth.
“Anytime you lose a great player, you know there’s gonna be a big hole that you gotta replace,” Roach told reporters in June, at a charity softball event. “But also, when you lose a great friend, a great brother, it kinda hits hard.”
It could hit Allen the hardest, a bona-fide star who’s made two straight All-Pro teams and knocks around opposing quarterbacks more than anyone in the NFL. As the Jones-Roach rotation seems stable at nose tackle — even as the ascending Roach could continue growing in his versatility — the most movement here during camp will happen at boundary end, with a few hungry mouths awaiting.
The 28-year-old Uwazurike figures to play a massive role in 2026, after a mini-breakout last season: a 36% defensive snap share, 3.5 sacks, 49 tackles in 19 total games. He’ll be the stabilizer. Onyedim, meanwhile, looked instantly ready for serious NFL snaps this summer before Denver even put on pads, and figures to play at least a rotational role. Keep an eye on Sai’vion Jones here, the Broncos’ 2025 third-round rookie who now will have a serious shot to wreak havoc on passing-down snaps with his 82-plus-inch wingspan. Denver will likely give veterans Jordan Jackson and Matt Henningsen long looks in camp for 53-man spots, too, given the potential reliance on youth here.
Outside linebacker
:Nik Bonitto, Que Robinson
:Jonathon Cooper (?), Jonah Elliss
Cooper’s mere presence on this roster — let alone his outlook for 2026 — is in flux, after he was arrested multiple times in June in relation to a physical altercation with his girlfriend. That, correspondingly, leaves the Broncos’ entire edge outlook here in flux, as Cooper has racked up 27 sacks and 49 quarterback hits across 51 straight regular-season games as a starter in Denver.
However Cooper’s legal process and potential league and team discipline plays out, though, there’s still an overwhelming amount of talent in this room — enough to leave key contributor Dondrea Tillman off this two-deep entirely. If Cooper is suspended for any part of the 2026 season, expect Elliss to get the first crack at playing alongside two-time Pro Bowler Bonitto, who should be set for another leap in his own right. Head coach Sean Payton went public earlier this offseason proclaiming the Broncos would look at the 23-year-old Elliss to shift inside, only to walk that back months later and make clear that wasn’t an option simply because of Elliss’s talent playing the edge.
Another glaring breakout candidate here, too, is Robinson, enough for him to supplant Tillman as a rotational rusher beyond the Broncos’ top duo. His sack of Drake Maye in the AFC Championship Game made waves and his closing speed and upside are both ridiculous. Denver has some flexibility here.
Inside linebacker
:Alex Singleton, Red Murdock
:Justin Strnad, Jordan Turner
Utter crapshoot here behind a completely stable duo of Singleton and Strnad. Both veterans re-upped with the Broncos on multi-year deals in free agency as certified Joseph guys, and they head into camp as the unquestioned starters. They know it, too. Strnad, after all, told The Denver Post flat-out in January that he didn’t think he’d re-sign in Denver if he didn’t anticipate starting at ILB in 2026.
After two straight seasons of spot-starting at ILB, now Strnad will step fully into a featured role in the middle of Denver’s defense. And Singleton, for one, said in May he expects a “huge leap” from his running mate.
“You have that confidence where — a team finally gives you what you deserve, you have that confidence all offseason,” Singleton said. “So he’s had that already. There isn’t that question of, ‘Oh, what snaps am I going to play?’”
That question comes further down, in what projects as a slight mess of a depth chart. Red Murdock (2026 pick No. 257), Taurean York (2026 undrafted free agent), Jordan Turner (2025 undrafted free agent), Karene Reid (2025 undrafted free agent), and Levelle Bailey (2024 undrafted free agent) don’t have a single NFL start between them. Strnad, as the team’s third ILB, has wound up playing a rather important role the past two seasons; the Broncos need one or two youngsters to step up in camp. Murdock should have an inside track, a loyal Buffalo product with a mean streak and a fast processor. Turner impressed the Broncos so much at 2025’s rookie minicamp that he earned a contract, then earned a practice-squad spot in camp, then earned a full-time roster nod down the stretch; he’s a third-ILB candidate to watch.
Cornerback
:Pat Surtain II, Kris Abrams-Draine
:Riley Moss, Jahdae Barron
:Ja’Quan McMillian, Reese Taylor
Here’s where the most eyes will fall in any defensive realm this August. Barron was the No. 20 overall pick in 2025’s draft, spent most of his season playing in dime and specific nickel packages, and left quite a few fans wondering about the Broncos’ long-term plan for him. The short-term plan, at least, seems clear: have he and Moss duke it out for a CB2 spot to determine who Denver could extend long-term between Moss and McMillian.
Barron couldn’t beat out McMillian as a rookie for Denver’s starting nickel job, though, and supplanting Moss to play opposite Surtain will be no easy task. The 26-year-old Moss went public plenty of times in 2025 for a variety of pass-interference flags, but also surrendered just a 58% completion percentage despite seeing a ridiculously high volume of targets. Barron would need to showcase a leap from an uneven rookie season to win Moss’s job, particularly after playing limited doses of outside cornerback in 2025.
McMillian’s hold on his nickel duties, meanwhile, seems ironclad after a standout 2025 season. Abrams-Draine is an interesting piece here, a rising third-year cornerback who would likely be good enough to compete for a starting job on a handful of NFL teams.
Safety
:Talanoa Hufanga, Devon Key
:Brandon Jones, JL Skinner
The Hufanga-Jones marriage landed on hiatus in December, when Jones suffered a pec injury that ended up knocking him out for the season. Year 2 of their partnership could prove even better than Year 1, with Hufanga’s nose for the ball and Jones’ ranginess in coverage. The one glaring caveat there: the two have missed nearly 20% of their cumulative regular-season games throughout their career, putting obvious importance on Denver’s third-safety position after veteran P.J. Locke signed with the Cowboys.
Veteran Tycen Anderson, signed away from Cincinnati, could be a contender for Locke’s vacant job. But Denver hasn’t had much recent luck with signing impact-special-teamer safeties on the open market in recent years, cutting Sam Franklin at the end of last year’s camp and signing-and-cutting former All-Pro J.T. Gray midseason. Instead, look to Key, who has earned widespread organizational trust after a franchise-great season as a special-teams tackler in 2025.
Skinner, meanwhile, has played all of 54 regular-season defensive snaps in a Broncos uniform after Denver drafted him in the sixth round in 2023. The 6-foot-4 safety, though, could earn a foothold in camp with Locke gone, and was trusted by Joseph to play deep in hyper-specific closing-game situations last season.
Special teams
K: Wil Lutz
:Jeremy Crawshaw
LS:Mitchell Fraboni
If the Broncos had a 2025 playoff MVP, it might well be Crawshaw, who improved over the course of his rookie season in Denver and promptly deposited five of 10 playoff kicks inside the opponent’s 20-yard-line. The 2025 sixth-round pick could — relative to punting — be in store for a monster sophomore year.
Lutz, meanwhile, will serve as Payton’s kicker for a fourth straight season in Denver and 10th season overall. That takes a rare breed.
