Champ Bailey has watched the Broncos defense excel this season with the pride of a father.

The onetime elder statesman of Denver's defense looked on as his former teammates owned almost every opponent they faced. The unit ranked first in total defense (283.1 yards per game) and passing defense (199.6 ypg) for most of the season. As a cornerback, he was especially impressed by the secondary.

"It's very tough," Bailey said of allowing the fewest passing yards per game. "This is a passing league and you ask your corners to get out there and play a lot of man-to-man and leave them by themselves a lot of the times. That's tough to do and what it takes is a really confident short-term memory guy, and that's what these two guys are."

Those two guys are Aqib Talib and Chris Harris. Both earned a Pro Bowl invite, and Harris is also a second-team All-Pro. They have combined for five interceptions, three touchdowns and 19 passes defended in 2015.

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Bailey keeps an especially close eye on Harris, because he was a key mentor for the young cornerback. They were teammates for three seasons as the Kansas product transformed from an undrafted free agent to a top cornerback.

"He's grown so much, he's learned so much," he said of Harris. "I mean he's had the luxury of playing opposite of me and now Talib comes in, another guy he can learn from. He's just a student of the game, he's tough, he tackles, he covers. There's no part of the game that you ask your corner to do that he can't do well. I'm proud of him, man. I watch from afar and it makes me smile when I see him do great things. "