Derek Wolfe’s legacy: The Broncos don’t win Super Bowl 50 without him

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It meant something for Derek Wolfe to retire as a Denver Bronco.

UCHealth Training Center was his football home. Colorado is his home in a way no other place has been during his life. He flourished here. He married and built a family here. And near the end of his championship season, Wolfe signed the contract extension that changed his life — and perhaps that of future generations of that family — here, too.

Wolfe helped make the “No-Fly Zone” era Broncos special. But the Broncos and Colorado itself helped make Wolfe.

“It is definitely my home,” he said on the day he signed a one-day contract so he could ceremonially retire as a Bronco. “I love it here.”

Wolfe spent the last two years with the Baltimore Ravens, but the truth is, he was just on loan. A traveling working man who missed his family, missed his environment … and missed home.

“I love being in this building,” Wolfe said, standing on a podium outside the Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre on the day he announced his retirement. “There are so many great memories in this building. Just walking around earlier today, I was like, ‘Man, I miss being here.’ I do. I miss being in this building.

“I missed it the two years I was in Baltimore. As great as an organization as Baltimore was, it just didn’t feel the same to me because I built the relationships that I built here.”

Relationships like the one he has with the Broncos’ director of team nutrition, Bryan Snyder, who made Wolfe’s protein shakes. The bond he still has with former head coaches John Fox and Gary Kubiak, both of whom Wolfe cited as influences on his life and football career. Or longtime defensive-line coach and current special-projects coach Bill Kollar, with whom Wolfe stood on-field during practice Friday.

“I was already playing good football and he changed my game completely as far as the confidence that he instilled in me,” Wolfe said. “He took me and molded me into the player that he was like, ‘I know you could be better than that. I know you can do better. You have to do better.’

“We’re great friends still and I’m forever grateful for Bill.”

And Broncos Country is forever grateful for what Wolfe did — and how people like Kollar in Denver’s organization helped make it possible.

Kollar joined the Broncos in 2015 when Gary Kubiak became the team’s head coach. Under Kollar’s guidance, Wolfe became an interior pass-rushing force. Before Kollar arrived, Wolfe averaged one quarterback hit every 2.0 games. With Kollar, that rate surged to almost one QB hit a game — one every 1.1 games, to be exact.

Wolfe’s magnum opus was the 2015 season. In 15 games played — including three playoff games — he hit opposing QBs 18 times. And while he didn’t post the prodigious sack total of teammates like Von Miller, he was no slouch; he had eight sacks, including 2.5 during the Broncos’ postseason run.

Along with Malik Jackson, he helped unleash Miller and DeMarcus Ware off the edge. In the 2015 AFC Championship Game, Miller and Ware combined for 11 hits — but Wolfe and Jackson added 5 more from the inside, with Wolfe notching a sack of Patriots QB Tom Brady.

The interior rush was particularly important. In those days — and today, as well — only one thing consistently knocks Brady off-kilter: a quick rush that moves him from the spot. And few edge rushers are quick enough to do that on a consistent basis. But an interior pass rush — with less ground to cover than that from the edge — can.

That day, Wolfe and Jackson discombobulated Brady, breaking down his pocket in a flash from inside. They set up Miller and Ware. But it wasn’t unusual; Wolfe had set up Miller for sacks since he broke into the starting lineup in 2012. He’d keep doing it for another four years.

Miller isn’t Miller without Wolfe working on the inside.

“The chemistry that was built there, we didn’t have to say a word to each other,” Wolfe said. “We just knew what we were going to run, and we planned it out during the week. ‘Hey, this guy does this, and this guy does that. I see this, and this what I’m going to do.’ All I had to do what look at him and he knew.

“I think out of 100 sacks in eight years on the field with him, only six I wasn’t in on the play or on the field with him.”

Together, they helped provide the pass-rush half of the rush-and-cover cocktail that stymied foes. Never was it better than in 2015, when the defense was a perfect storm of chemistry, coaching, camaraderie … and colossal talent.

“You can’t overlook the talent,” Wolfe said. “We had so much talent. We took all the talent and put the egos aside and put it towards one goal. It’s so difficult to do.”

But take out any one piece — or have any of them at a sub-par level — and it wouldn’t have carved out a place in NFL history among the all-time best single-season defenses. Denver joined teams such as the 2013 Seahawks, 2002 Buccaneers, 2000 Ravens and 1985 Bears as champions carried by an overpowering defense.

“We had a lot of guys going into contract years and a lot of guys could’ve been like, ‘Forget the team, I’m worried about myself.’ That didn’t happen,” Wolfe said. “We were all focused on winning a Super Bowl. That’s all we cared about.”

Wolfe was one of those players in a contract year. Two days before the divisional-playoff round, he signed a four-year contract extension. And even though the Broncos would not make the playoffs again while he wore orange and blue, he had no regrets.

Two recent hip surgeries told Wolfe it was time to end his playing career. But he’ll be a part of Colorado for many years to come.

“I can’t imagine living anywhere else but here. I thought about getting more bang for my buck financially and moving down to Texas or something like that, but my wife isn’t dealing with that humidity down there. For me, going to visit friends who live in those areas, it’s like, ‘Man, I’m glad I made this my home.’ It’s a great place to raise kids. Schools are great here.

“There aren’t really any blemishes on this place. It’s sunny 300 days a year. It’s the middle of July and it’s not that hot. You can’t beat that.”

Being a Bronco meant something to Wolfe. Being a Coloradan does, too. He might not be a Ring of Famer. But for eight seasons, he was the right man at the right time on defenses whose accomplishments will forever live in the hearts of Broncos fans.

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