Player

Zach Allen

DL · Broncos

Zach Allen: facts drawn from the play-by-play.

FanIQ Research · May 10, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

47 QB hits in 2025 — the most by any defender in the NFL. Ahead of Garrett, Parsons, and Hutchinson.

Rare

NFL QB hits leaders, 2025 regular season

Player	Pos	QB Hits
Zach Allen	DL	47
Myles Garrett	DL	39
Aidan Hutchinson	DL	35
Brian Burns	LB	31
Byron Young	LB	29
Josh Hines-Allen	DL	28
Nik Bonitto	LB	28
Micah Parsons	LB	26
Chris Jones	DL	25

47 QB hits is the highest single-season total in the league this year — by 8. And Allen had only 3 sacks. The gap between him and Myles Garrett (39 hits, 21 sacks) is the loudest 'pressure vs finishing' anomaly in the entire database for 2025. He is *in the QB's face* on more snaps than anyone — the takedowns are just going to teammates.

The QB hit total has more than doubled every two years since 2020.

Trend

Zach Allen regular-season defensive line by year

Year	Team	Sacks	TFL	QB Hits	PD
2019	ARI	0	1	3	0
2020	ARI	2	5	6	3
2021	ARI	4	5	14	4
2022	ARI	5	10	20	8
2023	DEN	3	8	24	1
2024	DEN	6	15	40	1
2025	DEN	3	4	47	6

QB hits per season

Season	QB Hits
2019	3
2020	6
2021	14
2022	20
2023	24
2024	40
2025	47

3 → 6 → 14 → 20 → 24 → 40 → 47. A perfectly monotonic QB-hits curve across seven seasons. Almost no defensive lineman in the database has this kind of clean upward arc — most have a peak year, a regression, a comeback. Allen has just kept improving the pressure rate, year after year.

Trade to Denver = transformation. ARI Z.Allen vs DEN Z.Allen are different players.

Split

Zach Allen by team

Team	Games	Sacks	QB Hits	TFL	Hits/G
ARI (2019-22)	41	11	43	21	1.05
DEN (2023-25)	49	12	111	27	2.27

In Arizona he was a rotational interior player who hit the QB roughly once a game. In Denver under Vance Joseph's scheme, he hits the QB over twice a game — more than double the rate, despite playing only ~30% more games. The 111 QB hits in 49 Denver games is the kind of pace usually reserved for Aaron Donald in his prime.

He has just one career multi-sack game. With 154 career QB hits.

Anomaly

Career totals (reg. season)

Sacks	TFL	QB Hits	PD	Games
23	48	154	23	90

154 career QB hits, 23 career sacks — a 6.7-to-1 ratio. That's a hits-to-sacks ratio that almost no successful pass-rusher in the league sustains. The reference points: Myles Garrett's career ratio is around 2.0 (he finishes most of his pressures), Aaron Donald's was around 2.5. Allen is at 6.7 — he's the most extreme 'pressure without finish' modern defensive lineman the database has logged.

23 PDs from a defensive lineman — the hybrid 5-tech skill set.

Milestone

PDs by season

Year	PD
2019	0
2020	3
2021	4
2022	8
2023	1
2024	1
2025	6

23 career pass defenses from a defensive lineman is elite. Most edge-defenders never crack 10 in a career. The 8-PD year in 2022 (Cardinals) is one of the highest single-season totals for a DL the database has tracked outside of J.J. Watt. The 6 in 2025 with Denver suggests he's stretching his arms into more passing lanes again.

In Denver the QB hits per game put him in Aaron-Donald territory.

Comparison

Career QB hits per game — selected interior DL

Player	QB Hits	Games	Hits/G
Zach Allen (DEN years)	111	49	2.27
Aaron Donald (career)	264	155	1.70
Chris Jones (career)	220	150	1.47
Leonard Williams (career)	223	170	1.31

Zach Allen's Denver-era QB-hit rate (2.27 per game) is higher than Aaron Donald's career rate (1.70 per game). Allen is not a better pass-rusher than peak Donald — but the *pressure* number is genuinely in that air. The difference is the conversion: Donald turned hits into sacks at roughly 2.5-to-1; Allen's conversion is closer to 9-to-1 in Denver.

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