Defensive End · Denver Broncos

Zach Allen

No. 99 · 8th season

Zach Allen jumped 17 spots, then signed for $100 million

The NFL's Top 100 list is voted on by players — which means the people who have to line up against you decide where you rank. Last year Zach Allen was 90th. This year he's 73rd. The number says plenty.

Allen is a defensive lineman for the Denver Broncos, and his job is to get to the quarterback. He's good enough at it that Denver kept chasing an NFL record for sacks last season, right up until the final weeks when the pace slipped away. The team hasn't let that feeling go. They're building this year around the belief they can finish what they started — and Allen is at the center of that.

The Broncos locked him in with a contract extension worth $100 million. That's the organization saying, plainly, that whatever is coming next, they want him in the middle of it.

There's a certain kind of player who rises on other players' votes and then gets paid — and still feels like the story is just beginning. Allen is in that place right now. The record chase starts again soon.

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