Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos Newcomers Stole the Show in Win Over Washington

Denver Broncos newcomers Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, R.J. Harvey, and Evan Engram played great in the overtime win Sunday.

Rich Kurtzman

02 Dec 2025 — 6 min read

Denver Broncos newcomers—Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, R.J. Harvey, and Evan Engram—stole the show in the win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football.

Denver finally earned a spot in the playoffs in 2024 following an eight-year absence from the postseason.

But the Broncos didn't rest on their laurels, they went out and built an even better team for this current run.

Denver's 27-26 OT win over Washington was highlighted by many newcomers

The Broncos narrow, one-point overtime win over the Commanders was a whole-team effort.

That's for sure.

Denver barely hung on to win when Nik Bonitto jumped up and knocked down Marcus Mariota's pass that would have scored 2 points and won Washington the game.

Of course, that's just distilling a four-hour game down to one, singular play. And while the star, Bonitto, came up with the game-saving play, and Bo Nix balled out, a whole host of new Broncos made their mark on this huge victory.

Dre Greenlaw pick

Dre Greenlaw was supposed to be a crucial addition to the Broncos defense, but he sat out the team's first seven games due to a quad injury.

Finally, he's been back and making some noise here and there. On the year, he has 28 combined tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. But last night's interception was his biggest play yet for the Broncos.

With the Broncos up 3-0, the Commanders were driving and inside Denver's red zone. That's when Marcus Mariota stepped up, threw as he was drilled, and was picked off by Greenlaw.

[Highlight] Dre Greenlaw picks off Mariota in red zone
by u/nfl in nfl

The pick was huge because it stopped the Commies' momentum and held them with no points when they were in field goal range. It was also big because the one knock on Denver's defense is their lack of turnovers forced; that's their 10th one in 12 games.

Greenlaw's been making his presence felt more consistently lately, which is great news as we approach a tough stretch run.

Talanoa Hufanga a constant menace

Hufanga came to the Broncos by way of the 49ers, just like Greenlaw. And while the linebacker was more hyped before the season kicked off, the safety, Hufanga, has been the better all-around player.

He's been fantastic all year long, and that was the case again on Sunday night. Hufanga made two fantastic tackles for a loss in the ground game to start the contest, and almost made a third TFL, all in the first quarter.

As the game went on, he not only made tackles around the line of scrimmage, but following receptions too. His 13 total tackles led the team and were a career-high for a single game.

Yes, he did get called for the pass interference in overtime that extended the Commanders drive, but Jonathon Cooper was held on that play and it should've been offsetting penalties. Hufanga was just a fraction of a second early from knocking the pass away from the intended receiver.

If you click though to Bluesky, Derrick's video and the next in the thread has some great Hufanga highlights from a few weeks ago.

Talanoa Hufanga goblin mode vs Houston Texans supercut
— Derrik Klassen (@qbklass.bsky.social) 2025-11-05T17:36:37.927Z

Hufanga is currently second on the team in tackles with 89 behind only Alex Singleton. He's been compared to Troy Polamalu—by Cris Collinsworth on Sunday night—and others because he has long hair, but also because he's a safety that plays near the line of scrimmage and causes havoc.

R.J. Harvey's pair of touchdowns

With starting running back J.K. Dobbins going down for (likely) the year with a foot injury in the Raiders game a few weeks ago, the rookie Harvey is now being relied upon as the Broncos starter.

On Sunday, he was special.

Yes, Harvey only gained 35 yards on 13 carries, but the Broncos went away from the run and threw it almost twice as many times as they ran it. And he made the most of it when he had the ball in his hands, including 3 catches for 24 yards.

Harvey's first touchdown came in the third quarter, the answer to the Commanders' first touchdown of the day. Then, he carried the Broncos to victory with the 5-yard touchdown run in overtime. Both of Sunday's scores were on the ground, and he now leads all Broncos with 8 touchdowns; 4 through the air and 4 rushing.

But it was also a little bit of everything from the rookie on that overtime drive. He caught a pass for 12 yards to get the drive going. Then, two plays later, had a brilliant blitz pickup on the Nix-to-Evan Engram 41-yard catch-and-run. All finished off with that score.

Evan Engram finally showed up

Speaking of Engram, the tight end finally had a great game.

After starting the game quietly, Nix worked the ball to Engram repeatedly on the 2-minute drive before half.

But the tight end's biggest play of the day was that aforementioned 41-yard catch and run that he damn-near housed. Engram was scooting on that play, and if he continues to play like that, the Broncos offense will be all the better because of it. Bo Nix will get a safety blanket and a middle-of-the-field target he's been desperately missing.

He led the team in receptions (6) and yards (79); both were season-highs for him.

Broncos 10-2 start a good omen?

Denver's win over Washington is their ninth straight and they improved to 10-2 for the 8th time in team history. It's their longest win streak since 2012, when the team finished the regular season on an 11-game winning streak.

The Broncos have started 10-2 only four times since 1997. They won the Super Bowl in three of those years—1997, 1998, 2015—and made it to the Big Game the other time, in 2013. That 2013 team still holds multiple NFL records on offense some 12 years later, as explained in Chasing Lombardi: The Elway-Manning Era (reach out to order a copy of my book!).

All told, Denver's started a season 10-2 or better 8 times, with two more Super Bowl appearances (1977, 1989) and two divisional round losses (1984, 1996).

Denver now in second

On Monday night, the New England Patriots extended their win streak to 10 games and improved to 11-2, one-half game ahead of the Broncos in the AFC.

The Pats looked like world-beaters in all three phases on Monday Night Football; they had a 94-yard punt return touchdown, Drake Maye threw for 282 yards and 2 TDs, and the defense was hitting hard.

With New England on the bye, Denver has a chance to take that No. 1 spot back in Week 14 against the Raiders.

However, the Broncos remaining schedule is tougher than New England's, in that race for the top spot and the first-round bye.

Denver: Green Bay, Jacksonville, at Kansas City, LA Chargers, 30-17 (.638).

New England: Buffalo, at Baltimore, at New York Jets, Miami, 22-26 (.458).

If the Broncos can't catch the Patriots, they'll likely land in the No. 2 spot and will face the No. 7 team in the first round. Currently, that'd be the Buffalo Bills, which would be the toughest matchup of any team listed in the top 10 currently.