Broncos' Rookie OLB Nik Bonitto Dishes on What Made him a Top Edge Rusher in 2022 Draft
Inside UCHealth Training Center, the response to the Denver Broncos selecting Oklahoma edge rusher Nik Bonitto with the No. 64 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft was met with elation, and almost disbelief. Outside the building, the Bonitto pick landed with more of a thud.
Draft media types mostly panned the value of taking the Oklahoma pass rusher that early, though there were a few draftniks who had Bonitto ranked higher than 64 — few and far between. The lack of congruence between how the Broncos felt about the pick and outside media left Broncos Country somewhat ambivalent about the addition.
Now imagine how Bonitto must have felt. On one hand, he's hearing from the team that drafted him how much they loved his game and coveted him, but being a young guy fresh out of college, he's not impervious to the online criticism of the pick.
All that being said, what matters is how the Broncos feel about Bonitto. That's what should most inform his confidence. And while the kid has a humble energy, there's no doubt that he understands how the sausage gets made when it comes to getting after the quarterback and affecting the game.
“You have to have a great motor," Bonitto said during his introductory press conference a week ago. "You have to be relentless. A lot of people think it's just moves and talent—you have to have the work ethic, that relentlessness in you to be disruptive in any way. I feel like that's what I have and that's what I can bring to this team.”
Bonitto includes himself among the best edge rushers in the 2022 draft class. And from a pure talent and traits perspective, he's not wrong.
“My relentlessness, my one-two," Bonitto said, describing what makes him a top-shelf rusher. "I have a good get-off as well. A lot of things you look for in good pash rushers and I feel like I have some of those traits. There's still a long way to go to become one of those greats in the NFL and a guy that can be talked about as one of the best in the league. I'm working towards it, I have a lot of good traits, I just have to keep working.”
As an entrenched starter on the Sooners' defense the past three years, Bonitto was highly productive. He notched 19.5 sacks and 33 tackles for a loss.
Depending on how much weight one is inclined to throw in Pro Football Focus' direction, to say that the advanced analytics giant viewed Bonitto favorably would be an understatement. He earned a 94.6 pass-rush grade combined over the 2020 and 2021 collegiate seasons, which was the highest in the FBS.
That's right. Even the No. 2 overall pick in the draft — Michigan edge rusher Aiden Hutchenson — couldn't beat Bonitto in that department, according to PFF. In 2021, Bonitto was PFF's top-rated edge defender when it comes to a very important advanced metric in qualifying a player at his position: pass-rush win rate.
Bonitto's pass-rush win rate was 27.8% — the very best in the FBS. And he totaled the highest QB pressure percentage among Power 5 players at 19.8%.
The knock on Bonitto is his run defense and that's simply something the Broncos will have to coach into him. It won't happen overnight but combined with working with Denver's strength and conditioning staff to better sculpt an NFL body, he has the upside potential to become a well-rounded edge defender sooner rather than later.
Bonitto's new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero was thrilled to land him with the last pick in the second round.
“When you talk about Nik, you're talking about a player we identified early on in this process," Evero said at Bonitto's hello presser. "A player that in college, was a highly productive pass rusher, highly productive versus the run, and [we] really believe this man is going to come in here, he’s going to work his butt off. He's the character that we're looking for. He's really going to add a lot to our team. When we talk about attacking the quarterback, this is the type of player we're talking about. Let's welcome in Nik Bonitto.”
That last trait Evero mentioned is of the intangible sort but it's the one that should give Broncos Country the most confidence that Bonitto can and will develop into a premier edge rusher: character. Bonitto's got it in spades, along with a great work ethic and football IQ.
Draftniks will continue to question the Bonitto pick but he landed in a very good spot because the scheme fit, in tandem with head coach Nathaniel Hackett's innovative, forward-thinking philosophies on teaching the "YouTube generation," is a good one. Plus, the Broncos have two very good vets ahead of Bonitto on the depth chart in Bradley Chubb and Randy Gregory, which buys the rookie time to grow, and gives him a couple of different blueprints to model his game.
Make no mistake. Bonitto is a twitched-up athlete who can do crazy, bendy things with his body when it comes to turning the corner that smacks of Von Miller. Broncos fans are going to fall in love with Bonitto quickly.
“I've been watching him [Miller] since I was young," Bonitto said. "Really in the game, just watching him, 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. Just watching him, just seeing a lot of things he's done in the game—things I want to accomplish. I know I'm going to have to work to get to where he's at and to have the success that he's had—the great things he's done in this game.”
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