2. Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos have set back-to-back franchise records for sacks in a season. They led the NFL last year with 68, and frankly, it feels like they still left some meat on the bone.
Although Denver's defense wasn't as downright dominant as the Houston Texans, they were phenomenal situationally. The Broncos finished last season ranked 2nd in the NFL in 3rd down defense and 1st in the NFL in red zone efficiency. Teams could move the ball on Denver's defense at times, but once you got to the red zone, it was no-man's land.
The most staggering fact about Denver's 2025 defense? They were one of the worst units in the league at creating takeaways. A team that had 68 sacks had just two strip-sacks in the regular season, so there is the potential for this group to take even another step forward in 2026. Vance Joseph will be entering his fourth year with the Broncos as their DC, and he has many of the same personnel coming back.
1. Houston Texans
The Texans allowed the fewest yards of any NFL defense last season. They were 2nd in points allowed behind only Seattle. They finished with the 3rd-most takeaways of any defense in the NFL. They allowed the fewest first downs of any defense. They were top-10 in the NFL in sacks.
There's not much this unit lacks, if anything.
And this offseason, they got even sharper teeth on the interior defensive line with Kayden McDonald coming in via the 2nd round of the NFL Draft. They also made a pretty underrated pickup of Reed Blankenship coming in through free agency to get even more experience on the back end. It's hard to see there being any drop-off with this group.
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