Denver Broncos GM George Paton and head coach Sean Payton have built up a good roster, with several underrated players. Pro Football Focus tapped safety Brandon Jones as Denver's most underrated player.
Now, ESPN's Aaron Schatz unveiled the most underrated NFL players at each position, and two more Broncos made the list.
ESPN had a Bronco on each side of the ball, both in the trenches. Garett Bolles was Schatz's most underrated offensive tackle, with Zach Allen at interior defensive line.
"After struggling early in his career, the 2017 first-round pick has developed into one of the top left tackles in the league. Bolles is still waiting for his first Pro Bowl nod, but he was seventh among tackles in pass block win rate last season (93.4%) and 13th in 2023 (91.6%)," Schatz wrote. "Bolles anchors a Broncos line that finished No. 1 in run block win rate (74.9%) in 2024. FTN data also had him seventh at left tackle in the rate of pressures allowed. His only problem might be the flags, as he was fifth among linemen last season with 15 total penalties (including declined or offsetting)."
Indeed, Bolles’ career started out on rough footing, but he has turned into a quality starting left tackle. As Schatz mentions, Bolles still has some issues with penalties, which keep him down.
Many view Bolles as a top 10 left tackle in the NFL, which is appropriate for the aging blocker. While he doesn’t have a Pro Bowl on his resume yet, he was widely considered a snub last season. Maybe he'll finally get that deserved nod after the 2025 season, provided his play doesn’t regress.
Bolles ranked seventh in pass-block win rate and 13th in run-block win rate. 34 tackles played at least 900 snaps last season, and 23 played at least 1,000 snaps. Bolles had 1,069 total snaps played, 99 fewer than the tackle who played the most.
Bolles' penalty count is fewer than Laremy Tunsil's and not much more than Dion Dawkins's or Ronnie Stanley's. Some of the NFL's best tackles have high penalty counts. Part of the issue here is that NFL refs don’t know snatch technique from holding. These four tackles are among the top executors of the snatch technique and got called for holding a few times.
As for Allen, he was one of the best interior defensive linemen last season and still doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.
“Even though he was chosen as a second-team All-Pro, I'm not sure most fans outside of Denver realize just how good Allen was in 2024. He plays as a 5-technique defensive end in Denver's 3-4 scheme and was key for the Broncos' unit. He dominated in defeats, which is the sum of big defensive plays (turnovers, tackles for a loss and tackles/passes defensed to prevent a conversion on third or fourth down)," Schatz wrote. "Allen's 25 defeats tied for second among interior defensive linemen with the Steelers' Cameron Heyward and was one behind the Seahawks' Leonard Williams. Allen was also second in run stop rate (89%), which measures how often one of his tackles prevented a successful run for the offense. He had 36 pressures for good measure, which ranked second to the Chiefs' Chris Jones among interior linemen in 2024.”
Allen was dominant for the Broncos last season, playing the most snaps by far. He played over 100 snaps more than the next highest player at the position in the NFL last year, which is about two whole games worth of snaps.
That helped Allen be highly productive, but his efficiency took a hit. This also highlights a difference between ESPN and PFF, where the latter grades Allen poorly against the run, while the former's run stop rate shows he was much better than the analytics giant would have you believe.
Schats is right; outside of people who cover the Broncos, or fans, Allen doesn’t seem to get the recognition he deserves despite being a second-team All-Pro last year. That recognition can change if Denver can get him to be more efficient, meaning fewer snaps and similar or better production.
Schatz mentions Allen ranking second behind only Chris Jones in QB pressures, but Allen played 193 more snaps than Jones last season. Heyward played 185 fewer snaps, and Williams 214 fewer snaps than Allen, yet they were either tied with the Broncos' All-Pro or ranked higher in their defeat count.
The Takeaway
Two Broncos making ESPN's all-underrated list is a positive development. Seeing anyone in the national perspective giving credit to the Broncos where it is due is rare these days.
After years of the Broncos being discredited, disrespected, and hated, perhaps that's starting to change.
-1742745965-q80.webp "Steelers DL Cam Heyward Had Thoughts Of Ending His Great Career After 2023 But 1 Thing Changed That")
