DENVER — Aqib Talib knows what elite defensive football looks like.
The Denver Broncos‘ legend was a first-round pick, five-time Pro Bowler, First-team All-Pro, Second-team All-Pro and a Super Bowl 50 Champion.
And that was just his success in the NFL.
In college, Talib was a unanimous All-America, two-time First-team All-Big 12 cornerback and the Jack Tatum Trophy recipient, an award that was given to the top defensive back in the country.
Talib’s individual accomplishments could earn him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. His team accomplishments were quite impressive too.
As part of the Super Bowl 50 team, Talib, Chris Harris Jr, Bradley Roby, Darian Stewart and T.J. Ward paired up to make one of the best secondaries, and defenses, of all time. They were good enough to earn the rightful nickname of the ‘No Fly Zone.’
In an exclusive interview with DNVR‘s Bennie Fowler, Talib gave his stamp of approval to the impressive group of players George Paton and Sean Payton have put together in the Broncos’ secondary.
“They got the guys,” Talib told Fowler about the Broncos’ secondary, with his usual unquestioning confidence.
Led by Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II, the Broncos’ have a loaded secondary with Riley Moss, Brandon Jones, Talanoa Hufanga and first-round pick Jahdae Barron all expected to start.
With the talent in place, Talib said the “secret ingredient” to all of the talent becoming elite starts off the field before it can transition to on the field.
“Man, I would tell them guys, first of all, man, get a D.B. night, man,” Talib said. “During OTAs, get a D.B. day. Y’all in there from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., right? Have a day or two where y’all go chill together. Where y’all go hang because that camaraderie, man, makes you be able to talk to a guy.”
No. 21 knows from his own personal experience.
“That made me able to say, ‘T.J., bro, get your ass over the top’ or make me be able to talk to them the way I want to talk to them because I hang out with them,” Talib explained. “I talk to them all the time. I’m comfortable with them.”
“If you’re not really comfortable with a guy, you going to mumble it under your breath. ‘Bro this dude ain’t tripping,’ you ain’t going to say it directly to him because you don’t know how he going to react,” he continued. “So I feel like that camaraderie, bro, is the secret ingredient that all of the successful teams that I’ve been on, that’s what we had. We had that conversation where you could say something to me, I could say something back and we still cool. There ain’t no beef between us.”
The great news for the Broncos’ secondary is this isn’t a foreign idea to them. In fact, they had this exact type of bonding experience last year and even the year before.
As they established themselves as one of the best defensive backs in the entire NFL during the 2024 season, the group had weekly bonding dinners on Thursday nights.
With Hufanga and Barron now in the fold, Talib believes it’s important the defensive backs maintain this tradition.
“It’s a pride thing in the NFL. Guys don’t like the way you talk to them and they might not talk to you for two weeks,” Talib said. “That would be step one. Step one, bro, build that camaraderie. Y’all boys build that camaraderie by hanging out. Have a casino night. Have a DB night. You know what I’m saying? Just build that camaraderie. And I think that would be the first thing I tell them to do.”
Talib’s next piece of advice for the Broncos’ promising secondary is closer to the football field than his first piece of advice.
“After that, I tell them, ‘No gray area, bro. It got to be black and white. If you don’t understand something, ask a question. Don’t leave that meeting room if you don’t understand it,” Talib stated confidently, leaving no room for gray area. “If the corner don’t see it the same way as the safety, don’t leave that meeting room until it’s black and white. If y’all don’t see it the same way as Vance [Joseph], don’t leave that meeting room until it’s black and white, man.”
Talib would be the perfect person to comment on this exact defense since he played under Joseph in Denver when Vance was the head coach from 2016 to 2017.
“No gray area,” Talib said one more time for emphasis. “That’s a terrible spot to be in as a secondary, if it’s gray a little bit. If you understand it, but don’t really understand it, get a clear and direct understanding of the defense, of the scheme, what we’re trying to do and have that camaraderie, man. Just holding each other accountable. That would be a great start for guys.'”
The Broncos’ secondary already has a great start to Talib’s advice by building the camaraderie on and off the field over the past two seasons.
But with the new additions, Talib made it very clear that must continue in order for the Broncos’ secondary to remain getting even better.
