and the ball is free. The big motor of
Zach Allen. Oh my goodness, that is Zach
Allen. He was sacked by Zach Allen. That
pressure came from the middle and that was big Zach
Allen. Good pressure there by Zach Allen and the
broken defense. Love it. You know, Sean
Payton recently said about Zack Allen, he's all the
things you're looking for, and this chart tells you
exactly what Sean Payton was talking about. Look at
that 2024 season, 8.5, sacks second among defensive
tackles in the entire NFL. He led the.
NFL in quarterback hits, first in quarterback pressures among
defensive tackles, and now to celebrate all of that
, Zack Allen joins the insiders. Zach, thank
you so much and of course your reward for having
a season like that is you got the big contracts
contract extension, uh, about two weeks ago.
I know you've been in camp, but have you
had time to even process and sort of reflect on
your career path to where you just got 2 weeks
ago? Yeah, no, it's, uh,
it's been kind of crazy. Yeah, I would
, I guess it totally hasn't hit me yet.
Um, but, uh, no, it's definitely
been kind of a crazy journey, you know,
these past 6.5, 7 years. So, just
really blessed and, uh, happy to stay in
Denver for the next 4 years. And, um
, yeah, you know, maybe, I don't
know, we'll see when it does hit, but
it's been, uh, we're just right now doing
the training, the training camp grind right now.
Zach, I'm not the biggest numbers guy because I
don't think they always tell the story, but I
can't find anybody at your position that had 40 quarterback
hits in the season. So I guess my question
is this is every one of those hits, do
they all feel the same to you? Does it
give you the same amount of pleasure? Does 11
of the 40 hits, is it, is it
one better than the other depending on who you hit
, or are they all the same when you smack
a quarterback? Yeah, I mean, they all
feel great. I, I definitely, you know
, when they turn to the sacks, it definitely
feels a little extra sweeter. Um, but no
, I mean, it's, uh, we have
a great group here and, uh, yeah,
it definitely helps me just kind of make my job
easier. And, uh, no, honestly,
it's, it's been a blast playing here and playing
with these guys and, um, you know,
just continuing to keep the group together this year and
, and see if we can kind of replicate it
and, you know, all of us have special
seasons. You recently said that you feel like you
are way ahead of where you were at this time
last year in terms of your preparation, which is
kind of unbelievable considering that you had like career highs
in everything, and you played almost 90% of all
the defensive snaps. So where do you think you
can already see improvements in your game for when the
regular season starts? Yeah, no, I,
um, I don't wanna give away too many secrets
, but it's been, uh, no, it's
been a really great camp. I think, um
, I mean, Baldi definitely knows from the breakdowns
and everything, I kinda did this reverse stance,
um, kind of broke that out last year,
and, you know, I didn't figure that out
until. You know, basically the 2 preseason game
, maybe after that. So the fact that,
you know, able to hit the ground running with
that, hit the ground running with the guys again
and, you know, just having a full offseason
to, you know, obviously get bigger, faster
, stronger, and, you know, kind of
watch the film and reassess and see you guys around
the league, what they were doing that worked.
Um, it's been great, so I'm definitely really
excited to just, uh, get to week one
and play the Titans. Zach, a couple of
things here. One, you came into this league
with Vance Joseph. You went to Denver kind of
with you sort of are attached at the hip since
you've been in this business. And when I watched
your defense last year without studying all the numbers,
it looks like you play as much reduced front covering
up all 5 with 5 man rushes as anybody in
this business, which kind of allows you guys to
go one on one quite a bit. You,
DJ, John Frankco Meyers, Benito, the whole
group, like how much of an advantage is that
that Vance gets you in those kind of fronts?
Yeah, no, I mean, anytime you can
get a one on one in this league, that's
all you can ask for. Um, and the
fact that, you know, he realizes, you
know, how much we value that and how much
pride we take in winning those is, is all
you can ask for, and it's been terrific.
And, um, you know, there's a reason
why I followed him to Denver, and it's because
I obviously. You know, see eye to eye
with the way that, um, you know,
he calls and believes in defense, and, um
, it's, it's been awesome and, you know
, it definitely is a race to the quarterback in
our room. uh, so it's, it's been
a lot of fun, but yeah, definitely,
uh, you know, anytime you get a one
on one in this league, it's, it's,
it's a mandatory to win it. Uh, Sean
Payton has said repeatedly and adamantly that you guys are
Super Bowl contenders, and he wants you guys thinking
about that. He wants you to feel that among
the players, how do you feel about that?
Does it put more pressure on you, more anticipation
? How do you absorb that? Yeah, no
, I think it's, um, you know,
it's obviously great to have expectations like that, and
the cool thing with our group is we're so process
driven. So for us it's, you know,
what's the goal of the day, what's, what's
the emphasis of the day, and, um,
for us, you know, we really are,
are focused on just taking it brick by brick,
step by step, getting better every single day,
so, um. You know, it's a,
it's a young room, but it's a mature group
and it's uh it it really is a special,
you know, team to be a part of and
, you know, again, it's uh we'll see
how it all plays out. Zach, I,
I put a tweet out there last year, a
breakdown out there, because it irritated me that you
didn't get the attention that you deserved. And so
I was just like, the, the, this
stuff speaks for itself and you lead the league in
sacks and your defense is feared, and you're in
the playoffs with the rookie quarterback. I, you
know, I appreciate you getting back to me on
that, Zach. I guess one of the questions
I have since Judy referenced Sean Payton is, I've
known Sean a long time and he just has this
ability to irritate you, just to get underneath your
skin. Does he stay away from the defensive linesack
or does he just keep it for the offense because
he's an equal opportunity irritant to me. No,
he's been good to us. He, he knows
, I guess, uh, kind of just leave
us to do our thing and, uh, he'll
reap the rewards. So he's been good to us
, not a lot of trash talk, but,
uh, it's, um, no, honestly,
like every day, you know, obviously with him
it starts with him, but the whole team,
I mean it's a competitive group and we really take
a lot of pride in, in what we do
and, um, so any team periods, 9
on 7, you know, any of it one
on ones, whatever it is. It's, it's
, there's trash talking going on and, um,
you know, coaches are not afraid to get involved
in it either. It's a whole organization thing,
but you want guys with that fire, um,
you know, we don't believe that there's dog days
at camp, it's every day is a day to
get better, so, um, it's, it's
been a lot of fun. All right, last
one for us, Zach on Saturday night on the
NFL Network, as it happens, you will play
the Arizona Cardinals, your former team, I know
you just had a joint practice with them too.
How does that feel to you since you've come so
far, and your team is so very good this
year? How does it feel to face your former
team? Yeah, it's been great. um,
you know, obviously still have a lot of good
friends there, players, staff, everything, so
anytime, you know, you can have an extended
period of time like a joint practice to see them
, it's, uh, it's a really cool experience
because you know most game days it's, you know
, you're lucky if you get 5 minutes with the
guys, so, uh, today was really cool
and. You know, obviously, uh, wish
them the best and, you know, I think
they got a hell of a group, so it'll
be, uh, I still follow them, you
know, still, uh, keep up with the
guys, got, you know, friends for life
on that team, so, um, it'll be
really cool to see kind of how they do this
year. Zach, thank you so much for joining
us. Congratulations again on the contract and lot lots
of luck this season. Thank you so much, 00:08:09.790 --> guys.