ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- When Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton likes to shove aside what he believes is a premature compliment or a potential trend, he will sometimes say it isn't time for "cake and candles" or "flowers and candy."
While his team's defense may not be ready to receive dessert and gifts, consider the buffet open for this swarming group.
"Being on this defense is fun," linebacker Cody Barton said. "It's aggressive. Everyone has a chance to eat."
The Broncos currently sit at 4-3, which is their best record after seven games since they were 5-2 in 2016. They've done it mainly through their defense, despite the unit having just one of its own first-round picks -- cornerback Pat Surtain II. The defense is largely a collection of under-the-radar players whom defensive coordinator Vance Joseph had declared in August were ready to "make some hay."
"I will say it's super early in the season ... everything at this point is fuel, good or bad," safety Brandon Jones said. "We're still building confidence and trust in each other. ... The last thing you want to be is comfortable."
The Broncos currently sit in the bottom third of the league in points scored and are 29th in passing offense. But on the flip side, they're third in the league in scoring defense -- only 15.1 points allowed per game -- first in red zone defense and fifth in pass defense. And the team's pass rush has consistently made life difficult for opposing quarterbacks. Despite no player having a double-digit sack season on his resume, Denver is second in the NFL in sacks (28).
The ability to share the wealth up front and disperse the threats in Denver's formation can be seen in how often it forces quarterbacks off their spots. The team's 56.9% pass rush win rate leads the league. The next closest team is the Chicago Bears at 54.4%.
To put that in perspective, only the Dallas Cowboys in 2023 (59.5%) have had a higher pass rush win rate through an entire season since 2018. The Broncos, heading into this week's games, also have 112 pass rush wins, 20 more than the next closest team (Houston Texans).
"We want to attack people, I signed up for that," said defensive end John Franklin-Myers, who arrived in a draft-week trade from the New York Jets. "And [Joseph] is just making the calls, we know everybody eats."
The Broncos have 12 different players with at least half of a sack. But Nik Bonitto, Denver's second-round pick in the 2022 draft, leads Denver with five sacks -- including one in each of the past five games. Joseph has consistently said Bonitto can be a "special" rusher. He finished with a career-high eight sacks last season but flashed the ability to create so many more.
In 2023, Bonitto had 15.5% of his pass rushes result in a first pressure by a defender, which was third-best in the NFL. His rate was higher than Pro Bowl stalwarts such as Maxx Crosby, T.J. Watt, Chris Jones and Aidan Hutchinson. However, Bonitto was seeing roughly 60% of the opportunities of the league's top rushers.
As the Broncos have applied more pressure from more places across the front, Bonitto and others have done a better job of converting those pressures into sacks.
"I really just want to do whatever I can to affect the quarterback," Bonitto said. "We have a lot of guys who can do that, and [Joseph] is bringing it from everywhere."
Franklin-Myers' arrival and Malcolm Roach's free agency signing have solidified a defensive front that was creased far too often last season; the team was 30th in run defense. And the additions have helped free up Zach Allen. Some personnel executives around the league have said Allen has Pro Bowl-worthy production so far.
Allen is eighth in the league in first pressures created (24 in seven games), has 16 quarterback hits and nine tackles for loss. He plays a staggering 90% of the team's defensive snaps as an interior lineman in the team's 3-4 look.
"[With] Zach, the first snap and the last snap, they are the same effort and intensity," Joseph said. "That's what we want, that's what he gives us."
It could all mean the Broncos keep themselves in some kind of wild-card conversation. And they could have a player reach nine sacks for the first time since 2018, when Von Miller had 14.5 and Bradley Chubb had 12. Joseph was the team's head coach that season.
But the group needs to stay healthy. Denver already lost linebacker Alex Singleton, its leading tackler in each of the previous two seasons, to a torn ACL in Week 3. And Surtain missed all but one snap of the past two games with a concussion, though Payton said it "looks positive" for him to play Sunday. With or without Surtain, the Broncos should feast against the Carolina Panthers, who are near the bottom of every major offensive statistical category. Then the heavy lifting awaits in Week 9, with back-to-back road games in Baltimore and Kansas City.
"We just need to keep going, week to week," said Barton, who returned a fumble for a touchdown and forced another fumble on a sack last Thursday against New Orleans. "You don't know who it's going to be. [The win over the Saints] was my night for a splash play, but the next game you don't know. That's how this defense is."