ENGLEWOOD — BBQ. That’s the secret sauce.

Mike Purcell puts it on everything. What, you don’t trust the taste buds of a 328-pound Broncos defensive lineman who grew up a few miles away? He keeps a BBQ bottle in his locker at UCHealth Training Center. Just in case.

The sauce came from his line-mate, DJ Jones, the grill master of the Broncos locker room. It’s DJ’s family recipe. His dad’s recipe. “Big Dave” Jones is a BBQ legend in NFL circles, you know.

“He gave each of us in the D-line room one,” Purcell told The Denver Gazette. “They all took theirs home, and I left mine here. So now when we got something for lunch, they want to throw some on, they come to (my) locker.”

Team BBQ-ing is the new team bonding. While Russell Wilson and the offense are the talk of the town, the key to this squad finally making the playoffs is what happens on defense.

And that starts with the BBQ boys.

They go by “The Dark Side.” DJ Jones, DeShawn Williams, Dre’Mont Jones, Purcell. DJ Jones describes the new philosophy as entering “a dark place” where emotions and pain and ego go to die. Sounds ominous, scary even, but I’m here to say Broncos don’t get to claim their own nicknames until they do something that’s worthy of a nickname. Orange Crush. No Fly Zone.

Now those fellas earned it.

So let’s get back to the barbecue.

DJ Jones, a $30 million acquisition in the offseason, has BBQ in his blood. For real. His dad owns and operates a line of BBQ sauces famous in celebrity circles. His brick-and-mortar shop in Greenville, S.C., has photos of fans like Clarence Thomas, Dan Reeves and George H.W. Bush.

“Big Dave’s All-American BBQ” is over on Faris Road in Greenville.

Sounds pretty good right about now.

Big Dave honored Little Dave, his son, with his own line of BBQ sauce — “93,” a nod to the latter’s jersey number with the San Francisco 49ers. DJ now wears No. 97 with the Broncos.

He’s 100 percent the most important defensive player in Denver. If the Broncos can’t stop the run, AFC West quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Derek Carr will have a field day against the Broncos. And the Broncos in recent years have not stopped the run — 18th in yards per attempt last season, 29th in 2020, 16th in 2019. I keep hearing and reading the Broncos defense is still what it used to be. But it definitely hasn’t looked like what it used to be.

The 2021 Eagles rushed for 216 yards against the Broncos, the Browns 182 (with Case Keenum at quarterback), Raiders 160, Steelers 147. Mahomes was just OK in one meeting — 270 yards, no touchdowns — but the Chiefs ran over the Broncos to make up the difference.

That’s why DJ Jones is here. His BBQ sauce is just a bonus.

“My profession, what I do, is I stop the run — whether you’re on the goal line, midfield, it don’t matter,” Jones said. “I take pride in stopping the run and helping my teammates stopping the run just like me.”

Jones has a cuter source of motivation these days. DJ and wife Kayla celebrated their first child during training camp. Back in 2019 the couple got engaged at Levi’s Stadium.

“She’s my purpose,” DJ Jones said of their daughter. “My family’s my purpose, this team’s my purpose. They (the Broncos) blessed me with that opportunity and put more money in my pocket, so I got more to live for.”

Football’s their livelihood. BBQ’s his family’s passion. Mix ’em up, that’s the secret sauce.