Welcome back to our inaugural list of the Denver Broncos’ 20 most important players to the success of the upcoming season.If you missed the first part of the series, which breaks down player Nos. 11 to 20, you can read it here. A quick note as we dive into the top 10: This is not just a ranking of the team’s best players — though many of them populate this list — but rather a ranking of the players who will be most important to the team’s hopes of reaching a Super Bowl in coach Sean Payton’s fourth season.Statistics below come from TruMedia unless otherwise noted.10. RT Mike McGlincheyLate last season, McGlinchey said he has become a “worlds better” player since he began playing under assistant Zach Strief in 2023 — and the numbers back it up. He was charged with only two sacks allowed in 2025, his lowest total in a full season since his rookie year with the San Francisco 49ers in 2018. He changed his footwork upon arriving in Denver, and that required an adjustment period. He likened it to a golfer changing his swing in the middle of his career, but his comfort level with the technique has grown across the past three seasons. McGlinchey has missed only five games since 2023, including none last season, and his presence is critical in Denver’s quest to become a more bruising rushing attack this season.How Davis Webb is taking the reins as Broncos' new play-callerNick Kosmider9. RB J.K. DobbinsThe Broncos believe they have improved their running back depth after adding fourth-round pick Jonah Coleman. They believe RJ Harvey, entering his second season, will be more comfortable with his versatile role in the backfield. But there’s a reason the Broncos signed Dobbins to a two-year contract ahead of free agency that comes with $8 million in guaranteed money, a deal that came on the heels of Dobbins missing the final nine games of the 2025 season because of injury. Denver is betting that Dobbins can replicate his performance across the first 10 weeks of last season, when his 772 rushing yards ranked fifth in the NFL. Games played is the most important stat to monitor for the 27-year-old, who insists that his extensive injury history won’t chase him into his second year with the Broncos. Can he deliver impact performances in December, January and, dare we say, February this season?8. RG Quinn MeinerzSince becoming the Broncos’ head coach in 2023, Sean Payton has not drawn up a game plan that hasn’t included Meinerz as the starting right guard. The two-time All-Pro has started all 54 games since, playoffs included, and has played more than 98 percent of the team’s offensive snaps during that stretch. Meinerz last season committed only one penalty. He’s simply been a reliable anchor for an offense that places significant responsibility on its interior offensive linemen to create a firm wall at the front of the pocket. Meinerz has been charged with allowing only three sacks across the past two seasons while establishing himself as arguably the best right guard in football. As much as the Broncos believe in the depth they have developed the past three years, the drop-off in talent between Meinerz and whoever would be charged with replacing him can’t be overstated.7. WR Jaylen WaddleThis may seem a bit low for an offensive weapon the Broncos traded a first-round pick and other draft compensation to acquire in a trade with the Miami Dolphins in March. Waddle will undoubtedly be key in Denver’s quest to open up more parts of the field offensively this season. His versatility as a whip-quick receiver who can attack defenses from the slot and also line up outside will make him an oft-used chess piece for new play caller Davis Webb. The reason Waddle does not rank higher comes down to the depth the Broncos still have in the room. They brought back every other receiver from a team that went 14-3 last season, and though Waddle brings a different element as a route runner that Payton coveted, Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims have the experience in Denver’s offense that would help blunt the impact of a theoretical Waddle absence at some point this season.The Broncos’ Zach Allen has been on the field more than any other defensive lineman the past two seasons. (Elsa / Getty Images)6. DL Zach AllenThe league-best pass rush for the Broncos is an intricate engine, each component working in concert to ensure the vehicle surges forward. Certain parts of an engine, of course, are more costly or harder to find than others. Allen’s constant presence at the front of Denver’s 3-4 attack has allowed the Broncos to harass quarterbacks from all angles. His fast and powerful first step at the snap can quickly wreck protection plans, forcing linemen into compromising positions that open up attack alleys for other members of Denver’s talented front seven. Allen plays with a relentlessness on every snap that becomes more impressive when you account for the fact that he’s been on the field more than any other defensive lineman the past two seasons. He has missed only one game in his three seasons with the Broncos.5. WR Courtland SuttonSince Bo Nix became Denver’s starting quarterback in 2024, he has thrown nearly as many passes to Sutton (259, 10th most in the NFL) as he has to Denver’s next two wide receivers combined (260 to Franklin, Mims). The arrival of Waddle should balance the target distribution within Denver’s passing game, but there’s no doubting that Nix has developed a trust in Sutton that has pointed him toward the 6-foot-4 target during some of Denver’s biggest moments across the past two seasons. That isn’t going to change this season and, ideally, the attention Waddle draws will create more of the one-on-one opportunities for Sutton that Nix loves to exploit.4. OLB Nik BonittoOnly Myles Garrett has more sacks across the past two seasons than Bonitto’s 27.5. Among players with at least 500 pass-rush snaps the past two seasons, only Garrett, Will Anderson Jr., Micah Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson have produced a higher pressure rate than Bonitto’s 17.3 percent. The 2022 second-round pick of the Broncos also put together arguably his best season against the run in 2025. The bottom line, though, is that Bonitto has the kind of rare pass-rush traits — rapid get-off, uncommon bend, swift hand work — that can turn a game on a single play. It’s not a card a lot of defensive coordinators have in their deck, and it is not one the Broncos have a comparable replacement for on their roster.3. LT Garett BollesOn one hand, Payton has been clear in his belief that sacks are largely a quarterback stat. The Broncos have been sacked a league-low 47 times since the start of the 2024 season after being sacked 52 times alone in 2023 (sixth most in the league that season), and it’s impossible not to view Nix’s role as the most important factor in that improvement. On the other hand, Bolles has protected Nix’s blindside during every game the quarterback has started in his two seasons and was charged with only 19 pressures allowed and no sacks in 2025 while becoming a first-team All-Pro. The 34-year-old has shown few signs of his age while improving his craft under Strief’s coaching. Much of Nix’s success in evading pressure comes in knowing Bolles is shutting down the attack behind him.2. CB Pat Surtain IIIt could be tempting to look at the Broncos’ 3-0 record during the games Surtain missed last season with a partially torn pectoral muscle as a reason that he should be lower on the list. The Broncos, after all, have a secondary that was deep enough last season to make it difficult for first-round pick Jahdae Barron to get on the field consistently. But viewing Surtain’s impact through that small sample size — two of the wins without Surtain came against backup quarterbacks, the other against a Las Vegas Raiders team with an anemic offense — would be discounting the fact that Vance Joseph builds his defense around the All-Pro cornerback and his ability to close off an entire side of the field. The erasing presence of the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year makes it difficult for opposing offensive coordinators to access certain swaths of their playbooks. That’s an impact that can’t be measured in ball production alone, yet Surtain’s 59 passes defensed since he entered the league in 2021 are the third most in the NFL during that span.1. QB Bo NixThe Broncos got their first taste of life without Nix at quarterback during the AFC Championship Game in January, and it was a sour one. Without his improvisational ability, which is often at its best late in games, the Broncos simply couldn’t move the ball in have-to-have-it moments with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.“Man, we missed Bo in that game,” Payton told ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham, who was embedded with the coach during last season’s playoffs.The game was the first Nix missed in his NFL career. He has had two ankle surgeries since, but he will be fully cleared when the Broncos begin training camp next week. The Broncos are not only counting on having Nix back under center. They are also expecting a Year 3 jump for the quarterback after adding a speedy new target in Waddle and pairing him with a new play caller in Webb, who served as Nix’s quarterbacks coach the past two seasons. The Super Bowl aspirations the Broncos harbor hinge on Nix making the most of the improved support system around him.