Draft Analyst Gushes Over Nik Bonitto After Broncos Drafted him at Pick 64

The immediate reaction following a team’s draft pick is always emotional. This is true for the prospect — achieving a life-long dream — a team that has been working towards this moment for a full year, and even a fan base that has combed over countless mock drafts and come away with pet favorites and hopes for their squad's draft haul.

With the No. 64 overall pick in Round 2, the Denver Broncos selected Oklahoma edge rusher Nik Bonitto. While the opinion on the Bonitto pick depends greatly on who you ask, concerns exist about his three-down usage and upside, which caps his value even with his obvious speed, explosion, and bend from the 9-technique alignment.

One obvious fan of the Broncos taking Bonitto at 64 is The Draft Network’s Brentley Weissman. On the network's live draft show, Weissman analyzed the selection for the TDN team, indicating he was surprised that Bonitto was even available to the Broncos with the last pick of Round 2.

“I think this is a little later than I personally had him going. I thought he was going to go mid-second round as I thought the NFL was going to value his explosive first step, his ability to bend, his motor. I think this is an outstanding pick and fit for the Broncos who, as was mentioned, lost Von Miller. They needed an additional edge rush presence to help Bradley Chubb. This is a guy who knows how to get home to the quarterback.”

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While most Broncos fans understand just how underwhelming Denver’s quarterback play has been over recent seasons, the team's complete and total inability to rush the passer was somewhat overshadowed last season. GM George Paton did somewhat take care of this need, signing dynamic edge rusher Randy Gregory from the Dallas Cowboys this offseason.

Denver’s other projected starting edge — Bradley Chubb — is set to have his first healthy offseason in a number of years. Even still, the Broncos needed to come away from the draft with more dynamism in getting after the quarterback. Given the recent run of press conferences from Broncos’ defenders, it is curious to see Bonitto will fit the defense given the how veterans on the team have consistently stated that the 2022 unit will run essentially the same scheme as it did last season under ex-head coach Vic Fangio.

With how important stopping the run is in the Fangio match-quarters-centric defense, with as few bodies as possible, Bonitto’s overall fit is perplexing. In order to play more pre-snap two-high looks in sub-packages, more of the onus in stopping the run and controlling the gaps falls on the interior defensive line, the edge rushers, and the linebackers.

It’s simply a numbers game as teams mimicking this scheme try to figure out how to account for all the gaps in run defense while allocating as few bodies to the cause as possible. Why play a linebacker in space in the passing game when a team can simply play a defensive back instead?

This logic is only feasible if the players still left in the box are able to play across multiple games and be positive players in the run scheme and in their run fits. This is very much not Bonitto’s game.

Bonitto certainly offers dynamic speed in rushing the quarterback and is a surprisingly good athlete in space, but his lack of length, mass, and edge-setting ability make his projection murky, especially on early downs. With teams throwing the ball more on first down than ever the past two seasons, it’s not as simple as playing a team’s base defense on early downs and sub-packages on third downs.

Ideally, teams need players who are good enough against the run to justify first and second down usage while still offering a utility against the pass, not only on third down, but all three downs. Perhaps this is overanalysis for a player who fell to the last pick of the second round of the draft.

What Boniotto does well is get after the quarterback and given how heavily teams tend to rotate their pass rushers in today’s NFL, even if the rookie is only a designated pass rusher early in his career, he can provide a solid return on investment in 2022. As Paton and new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero made it clear through from their phone conversation with Bonitto when the pick was made, and Denver's public remarks, the former Oklahoma star will have to work on his power and run defense in order to develop into a player that can see the field on all three downs.

One area that Weissman continued on about in his praise for the selection was the mentality Bonitto would bring to the Broncos’ defense.

“For a defense that has Patrick Surtain II, they have Bradley Chubb, they have Justin Simmons. All dogs, all alphas. I think Nik Bonitto fits in that mold. He’s a high character football player that plays with an outstanding motor. Yes, I get it there are some issues with his weight and his ability at the point of attack. However you don’t find many edge rushers with his ability to bend the arc and get to the quarterback. I think it’s special and I think they got a really good player.”

With a skill-set very similar to long-time speed rusher Bruce Irvin, who made a decent career playing SAM (strongside linebacker) and rotating over different gaps in obvious passing downs, the hope is that Bonitto can continue to add mass (especially to his lower half) and therefore power to his game so he can ascend beyond being a designated pass rusher with limited usage and upside.

Yannick Ngakoue is now on his fifth team since being drafted in 2016. He's a journeyman due to how much he has struggled against the run, hurting his team’s math and ability to play nickel and dime without getting pummeled in the run game.

The hope is that Bonitto can prove to be dynamic enough rushing the passer and creating chaos in the backfield to justify his poor run defense. Still given where Denver took him, if the team believes it can improve his run defense and power, Bonitto could wind up one of the better value selections in this draft given how valuable the pass rush is in today’s NFL and how explosive, bendy, and dynamic he can be speed rushing from a wide-9 alignment.

Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKendellMHH.

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