ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There weren’t many items on the stat sheet to help explain why the Broncos walked off the field at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last October with a 13-11 victory against the New York Jets.Denver lost the turnover battle. The Broncos punted six times. They rushed for only 78 yards, their second-lowest output of the season. They committed three times as many penalties as the Jets (six to two).The answer rested within a figure that has helped explain, perhaps more than any other, how the Broncos have risen from an eight-win outfit in 2023 to a team that has won 10 and 14 games, respectively, in the last two seasons, capturing the team’s first AFC West title in a decade in the process. The Broncos had a plus-8 sack differential in the win over the Jets. They sacked Justin Fields nine times and gave up just one sack of Bo Nix. The hidden yards of field position within that differential — plus-49 yards for Denver — were critical in a game decided by a field goal.Rookie Jonah Coleman looks like missing piece in Broncos' backfieldNick KosmiderThe game in London was a microcosm of the historic sack-differential pace the Broncos have set since 2024, when they drafted the elusive Nix in the first round and put the finishing touches on a defensive front that has produced back-to-back 60-plus-sack seasons. The Broncos’ differential over the past two seasons is plus-84 (131 sacks, 47 sacks taken). That’s 53 points higher than any other team in that two-year period. Some perspective on just how unique that figure is rests inside the TruMedia database, which goes back to 2000. In every other two-year span since the turn of the century, no sack differential leader has had more than a 27-point edge over the second-ranked team in the category.It starts, as so much in the NFL does, with the quarterback.“It’s one that’s difficult year in and year out if you’re taking a lot of sacks,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said last week. “So it’s one of Bo’s strengths, right? It was a strength of Drew (Brees); he was tough to sack. (He) processed it and (then) ball’s out. … When you get that combination of an offense where a quarterback’s getting it out and then you’ve got pressure players on defense, those numbers are probably going to (be high), but it’s not something you can come out here and say, ‘All right, we’re just going to practice the sack differential.’ It’s a byproduct of what you’re scouting and what you’re trying to build offensively and then defensively, the same way.”The Broncos may not “practice the sack differential,” but they are intimately aware of how much teams can control games by being on the right end of that category. In 2025, NFL teams overall averaged 2.1 points per drive, according to TruMedia. That figure was cut nearly in half — 1.13 points — on drives where a team took at least one sack. Touchdown rates when a team took a sack plummeted from 23.2 percent on average to just 8.7 percent. The Broncos have had at least one sack during 110 separate defensive possessions over the past two seasons. That’s a heap of drives that come with bad math problems for opponents.The question now is whether the Broncos can maintain both sides of their sack differential formula in 2026. Denver hopes to be more explosive offensively, with wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and running back Jonah Coleman added to Nix’s list of weapons. The defense wants to create more takeaways after finishing tied for 26th in turnovers forced last season (13). But the sack equation will remain vital.There is little to suggest there will be a meaningful uptick in sacks taken by Nix. His sack rate of 3.8 percent since entering the league as the No. 12 pick in the 2024 draft is the lowest in the league during that stretch. That came after two seasons at Oregon (2022-23) in which he was sacked a combined 10 times. Payton has said on multiple occasions during training camp that the Broncos have seen everything they’ve needed to see from Nix to be convinced he still has the same elusiveness, following a pair of offseason ankle surgeries, that has helped him evade pressure so consistently as an NFL starter. And though the veteran coach believes sacks are a stat that belongs to the quarterback, it can’t be overlooked that Nix is preparing to play behind the same starting five offensive linemen to begin a third straight season.The defensive part of the equation may be the bigger question. That’s not because the Broncos lost John Franklin-Myers in free agency, a veteran who had 14.5 sacks from an interior rushing position the past two seasons. Malcolm Roach has looked like a natural fit while working alongside Zach Allen and is coming off a career-best season as a pass rusher (four sacks). Eyioma Uwazurike, one of the defense’s standout players in this training camp, will get more chances to bring pressure, too.Malcolm Roach sacks Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence during their December matchup. (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)But no team in NFL history has posted three straight 60-sack seasons, a feat the Broncos are trying to chase this year after setting franchise records with 63 sacks in 2024 and then 68 in 2025. Members of Denver’s defense have talked openly about chasing the 72-sack record set by the 1984 Bears, but they are also adamant that none of the takedowns from the last two seasons get to carry over into this one.“You’ve gotta start from ground zero,” Roach said. “Right now, we’re building our foundation. If we build our house on a rocky foundation, when we get to October and November and months like that, it’s gonna collapse. Last year, we did a great job of building a great foundation and that took us through those close games. We have to build one even stronger than last year because that got us close (to the Super Bowl), but it didn’t get the job done.”Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said after Denver’s preseason win against the Falcons that he noticed Atlanta’s emphasis on getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hand quickly. The Packers had a similar approach last week, and teams figure to explore various ways once the regular season begins to mitigate Denver’s relentless pass rush. Can the Broncos adjust and protect the formula that has been so key to their success?“That may be a trend for us,” Joseph said. “Our rush is so good that the ball may come out fast. We had four batted balls (against Atlanta), so we have to pivot each season — each game — to what takes the ball away. A batted pass for an interception — that’s a huge play for us. So we’re constantly talking about just playing the right way, and that comes with it.”Aug 26, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. 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