ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Nik Bonitto was selected by the Broncos with the final pick of the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the last thing on his mind was how Denver came to own the pick it used to select the outside linebacker out of the University of Oklahoma.
He didn’t think about the origin of the pick at any other time, either. Not until a reporter approached him with a question last week, ahead of a matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs in which Bonitto starred?
Did you know the pick the Broncos used to select you was acquired by trading Von Miller?
“I didn’t know that,” Bonitto said, a curious eyebrow raised.
The Broncos traded Miller, the franchise’s all-time sack leader and a surefire future Hall of Famer, to the Los Angeles Rams in 2021. The Broncos got back a second- and third-round pick, a hefty return that general manager George Paton was able to negotiate after agreeing to pay the bulk of Miller’s remaining salary. The trade gave the Broncos a combined four second- and third-round picks, at the time, in the 2022 draft, along with their own first-round pick. Without that additional capital, Paton said, it would have been hard for the Broncos to agree to a trade in March 2022 in which they acquired quarterback Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks for two first-round picks and two second-rounders.
The Wilson era was short-lived, with the veteran posting an 11-19 record in two seasons before his release last spring. But Bonitto has turned into more than a consolation prize in a blockbuster deal that helped the Rams win a Super Bowl. The third-year linebacker’s sack of Patrick Mahomes on Sunday was his seventh in eight games. No Broncos player has had a stretch like that since Miller had nine sacks in an eight-game span in 2018 and Bradley Chubb had 10 in a similar stretch that season. When Bonitto recorded a sack in six straight games earlier this season, he became the first player since Miller to create that kind of stretch.
“He’s certainly made the leap,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. “He’s getting more snaps. He’s getting more pass-rush snaps. I think the key for Nik was playing the run and running at him. He’s at the right weight now. He’s a guy that plays with real good bend. He can bend and torque his body. He has a lot in the tank relative to his pass rush, and what he wants to do and how to set somebody up. He’s really helped us.”
Bonitto created a career-high six pressures against the Chiefs on Sunday, and three of those were “quick pressures,” according to Next Gen Stats, in which the pressure was applied in 2.5 seconds or less. There is no comparing anyone in Denver to Miller’s production. He was a first-team All-Pro three times during his 10-plus seasons with the Broncos. He was the MVP of Super Bowl 50 after a virtuoso performance that resulted in the franchise’s third championship. But from a pure traits perspective — the quick twitch, the ability to bend around the edge — there have been shades of No. 58 in some of No. 15’s performance this season.
“He’s a guy I’ve always looked at as the pinnacle to what the great edge rusher is and he’s the standard of what I want to be,” Bonitto said of Miller after the 2022 draft. “Just watching him, just seeing a lot of things he’s done in the game — (those) things I want to accomplish.
Much of Bonitto’s third-year jump can be attributed to opportunity. He is playing a career-high 58 percent of Denver’s defensive snaps (52 percent in 2023; 35 percent in 2022), a product of his ability to provide better support in the running game. Much of his growth in that area has come down to his size. Bonitto concedes he struggled as a rookie with the heavy increase in calories the Broncos wanted him to put down.
“Even now Ms. Ema (Thake, the team’s director of performance nutrition) will be getting on me sometimes,” Bonitto said.
Nonetheless, Bonitto has bulked up. He’s also gained a better understanding of how teams were trying to exploit him in the run game.
“Getting stronger has helped, but it’s just reps,” Bonitto said. “When I was in college, I didn’t go against a lot of NFL-style offenses. It was a lot different. So getting more reps under my belt and seeing what teams are sending at me has helped a lot.”
The improvement has helped Bonitto become a three-down rusher, which has turned into more pass-rushing chances. More opportunities to unleash a dynamic first step that has given tackles fits this season. Bonitto has capitalized in more of those situations, too. Last season, he turned 17 percent of his pressures into sacks, according to TruMedia. That number has jumped to 22.5 percent this season (seven sacks in 31 pressures). Teammate Zach Allen has watched Bonitto at times this season and wondered, “How’d he get there so fast?”
During Bonitto’s final high school season at St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida, his defensive line coach was none other than Hall of Fame pass rusher Jason Taylor. Bonitto said the lessons learned from Taylor during that one season were invaluable as he prepared to make the leap to the Big 12. But perhaps more important than anything was the assurance he was on the right track in his quest to become an NFL pass rusher. Bonitto’s father, Vince, told a reporter in 2022 that Taylor said during his lone season with Bonitto that the young pass rusher was well ahead of where Taylor was at the same age.
With increased confidence and strength, that talent is flourishing for Bonitto in his third NFL season.
“My trinity of outside guys I’ve played with is Chandler (Jones), Haason Reddick and Nik, and not even in that order,” Allen said. “I think you could make a case for Nik, long-term. When I was playing with Chandler, he was in his later years. Haason was in Year 4 or 5. I think it will be really cool with Nik to see where he is at that same point in comparison. From an athletic standpoint, I always said Haason was the best athlete I ever played with as an outside guy. But Nik — and, honestly, Coop (Jonathon Cooper), too, is a freak athletically — it’s just the true natural bend, I’d put him up there.”
Reddick had a combined seven sacks during his first three NFL seasons with the Cardinals before breaking through with a 12 1/2 sack campaign during his fourth year in 2020. Bonitto, who had eight sacks in 2023, could be on a similar trajectory. He and Cooper are on pace to become the first Broncos pass rushers to reach 10 sacks since Miller (14 1/2) and Chubb (12) combined for 26 1/2 in 2018.
That duo talked often that season about how the internal competition was fueling both players. Bonitto and Cooper have felt a similar boost with their in-season race. Cooper beat Bonitto for the team sack crown by half a takedown last season. This season, Bonitto is up by half a sack entering Sunday’s pivotal game against the Atlanta Falcons.
“We’re super competitive and we’re going to keep pushing each other,” Cooper said this week. “That’s my brother, man. We’ve been playing together for three years now. We’re going to make it tough on each other. I get mad every single time he beats me. He gets mad every single time I beat him. It’s just going back and forth and we’re going to make it a close competition to the end, for sure.”
The trade for Miller certainly worked out for the Rams, even if it turned out to be just a half-season rental. Less than four months after acquiring him, the franchise was celebrating its first-ever championship. Miller had four sacks during the postseason run, including two in the 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl. But with each lightning-quick burst Bonitto makes toward an opponent’s backfield, it becomes more clear the Broncos got a gem in the deal, too.
(Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
