How Does Champ's 2006 Rank Among the All Time Best Defensive Seasons by a Bronco?

[-Slap-]

Clearly among the very upper echelon. Some other candidates for the honor:

Randy Gradishar 1978 - AP Defensive Player of the Year. A mind boggling 283 tackles. Four interceptions and a touchdown.

Rich Jackson 1970 - First Bronco defender to make the All-NFL first team. Regarded by some as the best defensive lineman ever.

Tom Jackson 1977 - First Team All Pro. Voted Defensive MVP by teammates. Four interceptions for 95 return yards and a touchdown.

Bob Swenson 1981 - First Team All Pro. Three interceptions and three fumble recoveries. Always around the football. The true definition of a big play OLB.

Paul Smith 1972 - Made the All Pro team. Led the team with 11 sacks. Took over the mantle of defensive leader from Tombstone.

Karl Mecklenburg 1985 - Made the All Pro team. 13 sacks to lead the team. Played every position in the front seven.

John Mobley 1997 - Made the All Pro team. 136 tackles to lead the team. Four sacks. One interception returned for a touchdown.

I know there are names missing from this list. Guys like Louis Wright, Dennis Smith, Steve Atwater, Rulon Jones, Billy Thompson, Simon Fletcher, Lyle Alzado, Goose Gonsoulin and others. In many cases, it was simply too difficult to isolate a peak season out of a long career of sustained excellence.

[ludo21]

As I never saw anything past Atwater, I gotta give it to Champ.

Ive never seen a corner DEMAND so much respect for his quarter of the field. I need Med or someone with the correct stat to be sure, but its something like 20% of his passes completed his way, WOW!

[fontaine]

As I never saw anything past Atwater, I gotta give it to Champ.

Ive never seen a corner DEMAND so much respect for his quarter of the field. I need Med or someone with the correct stat to be sure, but its something like 20% of his passes completed his way, WOW!

I don't know the stats for the season but I do remember that in the Cardinals game, Leinhart threw in Champ's direction twice.

Both were intercepted!

:pimp:

[freak6]

Greatest season by a corner. Ever.

[bendog]

quite a list.

[-Slap-]

We have quite a defensive legacy. The hard part was narrowing down all the deserving choices.

[bpc]

I would have loved to see Gradishar's season. 283 tackles? That is unreal.

Because I wasn't alive for the 70's, its tough for me to judge those. I will say he has had one of the best defensive seasons i've ever seen by a Bronco. The fact that he racked up almost 100 tackles speaks volumes about his toughness and tenacity. The 10 picks were amazing when considering that 5 of those probably stopped TD's going against us as they were in the red zone.

[Hotrod]

Gradishar then Champ.

Over all thats a nice list what the hell is wrong with the HOF???

[When Lightning Strikes]

why Jason Taylor....Hes 5th at best. What a big baby....Champ should have run away with that award...

[REB]

Man...You look at that list Slap provided and you gotta give a big FU to the Hall of Fame. Dumb bastards.

1-2-3-:Broncos:!!!!!!! :charge:

[bendog]

It must have been that Nov 1970 game with Wash at Mile High when I saw Rich Jackson take out Wash's RT. He complained twice to the ref that he was being held, but no flags, so he busted up the guy's leg. I don't know who the guy was, and time and memory goes by, but the guy was absolutely Butkas like in destroying plays.

Couple of years ago, I heard that Rich Jackson was an administrator in the New Orleans school system, which may have been the toughest in the nation before Katrina. BLove asked me if I wanted to try and contact him, and I never replied cause to this day Rich Jackson scares me. I mean assuming I wasn't mugged or robbed getting to his school, I might have pissed myself just seeing him. LOL

[Killericon]

Man...You look at that list Slap provided and you gotta give a big FU to the Hall of Fame. Dumb bastards.

1-2-3-:Broncos:!!!!!!! :charge:

My thoughts exactly.

[-Slap-]

It must have been that Nov 1970 game with Wash at Mile High when I saw Rich Jackson take out Wash's RT. He complained twice to the ref that he was being held, but no flags, so he busted up the guy's leg. I don't know who the guy was, and time and memory goes by, but the guy was absolutely Butkas like in destroying plays.

Couple of years ago, I heard that Rich Jackson was an administrator in the New Orleans school system, which may have been the toughest in the nation before Katrina. BLove asked me if I wanted to try and contact him, and I never replied cause to this day Rich Jackson scares me. I mean assuming I wasn't mugged or robbed getting to his school, I might have pissed myself just seeing him. LOL

Of course, everybody has seen Alzado bug-eyed and hamming it up for NFL Films about the first time he met Rich Jackson. He said he was going to stride into the Bronco lockerroom like the biggest badass on the planet and then Tombstone's shadow fell on him and he became as meek as a mouse.

[loborugger]

I cant speak for a lot of those seasons - esp early 70s.

Whats clearly impressive about Champ's season is what a quick check of the stats dont show.

Brady didnt challenge him once in the Pats game.
Leinert did challenge him twice, and lost both times.
Manning unlike Brady did challenge him, but only sparingly.
Half his interceptions were inside the 5 - its like he took 35 points off the board. Further, many of those were in tight games (Raiders, Ravens, etc). Those may have been game savers.
He often came off his coverage assignment to make plays, or hold opponents big plays from becoming scores.

I cant remember a CB that was talked about the way Champ has been talked and respected like this since Sanders. But even then - Champ can tackle, Prime Time couldnt. Champ helps out in the run game, Prime Time didnt.

This is the best season we have seen by a Bronco since TD rushed for 2000 yards. But even then, that is a team effort. TD needed the line to block, and the passing game to help out.

So, naturally, I wanna say best defensive effort ever. However, as I stated before, I dont know all these player's efforts. So, I will finish by saying that I cant imagine any of them had a better season.

[OrangeShadow]

given the lack of pass rush and the rules he has going against him.yes

[-Slap-]

I guess it would come down to Champ 2006 versus Gradishar 1978.