Nik Bonitto broke off the line of scrimmage and immediately solved the geometry equation in front of him.
The second-year Denver Broncos pass rusher, on a pivotal fourth-quarter play at Soldier Field with his team trailing the Chicago Bears by a touchdown, saw quarterback Justin Fields take a high angle as he faked a handoff and bootlegged to his right. Bonitto recognized that Cole Kmet, the tight end running a crossing route behind his line from the other side of the formation, was in no position to throw a block.
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The combination of angles equated to a clear runway.
Bonitto took off without hesitation. In a flash, he was impacting Fields 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Before the quarterback realized he had run out of time, Bonitto had knocked the ball away. Fellow outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper scooped up the loose ball and returned it for a tying score, a defining sequence in the Broncos’ 31-28 comeback victory.
SCOOP & SCORE‼️
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— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 1, 2023
“Nik made a hell of a play,” Cooper said. “Like he said, he just read it. When he got the sack, I didn’t know if he had stripped the ball or if it was a PBU (pass breakup) or something. As soon as I picked it up, I just took off as fast as I could. All credit to Nik.”
The play was part of a career day for Bonitto, the Broncos’ 2022 second-round pick out of the University of Oklahoma. He finished with 2 1/2 sacks, which matched what he had produced through the first 18 games of his career. His four quarterback hits were two more than he’s had in any other game. His 19.2 percent pressure rate was his second-best mark in any game with at least 15 pass-rush snaps, according to TruMedia, and the 26 chances to rush the passer were the most he has had as a pro.
Bonitto looked like a pass rusher who was uninhibited by some of the overthinking he admits slowed him during his rookie season. Coach Sean Payton has said Bonitto’s reunion with Jamar Cain, his position coach at Oklahoma who is now on Denver’s staff, has brought a familiarity that has bred confidence, allowing him to play fast. When Bonitto snapped toward Fields in the fourth quarter, hitting the quarterback in fewer than two seconds, a comparison bolted into Zach Allen’s mind.
“He’s really an elite rusher who has all the athletic ability in the world,” Allen said. “I haven’t really played with something like that since I played with Haason Reddick. I think they’re very similar players. He’s still growing and still learning, and it’s exciting to see where he’ll be.”
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The Broncos would be thrilled if Bonitto ultimately matches the production of Reddick, a teammate of Allen for two years with the Arizona Cardinals. Since 2020, only Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt have more sacks than the 40 1/2 tallied by Reddick, who had a career-high 16 for the Philadelphia Eagles last season.
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For now, though, Denver would settle for Bonitto serving as a spark for a pass rush that has struggled to start the season. Games against the Las Vegas Raiders (Week 1) and Miami Dolphins (Week 3) didn’t present a wealth of pass-rush opportunities, but the bottom line is the Broncos hadn’t been able to impact quarterbacks in critical moments before Bonitto’s work Sunday. The Broncos entered Week 4 ranked last in pressure rate by a wide margin — 20.4 percent, according to TruMedia. In Week 4, the Broncos produced pressure on 46.3 percent of Fields’ dropbacks, the fifth-best mark in the league. Yes, it was against a Bears team that ranked 31st in pressure rate allowed entering the game, but it was an important step nonetheless.
It also was an improvement for Denver that came amid a significant personnel change. Randy Gregory, the marquee free-agent addition in 2022 who had started Denver’s first three games this season, was replaced in the starting lineup by Bonitto. It was just the second career start for Bonitto. His first came in Week 17 last season against the Kansas City Chiefs and was largely necessitated by injuries.
“We’re constantly every week looking at rotations,” Payton said Monday when asked about changes to the lineup, which also included Ja’Quan McMillian replacing Essang Bassey at nickel. “Sometimes it’s somewhat deceiving. It used to be you introduce the starting offense and the starting defense. There were 11 guys. The starting offense depends on what play we’re going to run. Defensively, we’re in a rotation. We’re just trying to do what’s best for our team.”
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Bonitto downplayed being moved ahead of Gregory in the rotation.
“I feel like the way our group approaches the game is the same no matter who is out there, who is starting,” he said. “We’re all going to approach practice and games the same way.”
Still, it was a surprising move given that Gregory signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Broncos last offseason that came with $28 million guaranteed. Gregory, who missed all but six games last season, has been healthy since the start of training camp. But he has produced pressure on only 9.5 percent of his pass-rush snaps this season, on pace to be his lowest mark since at least 2019. The Broncos clearly believed a shake-up was in order after their meager start defensively, and Bonitto capitalized on the increased role created by that change.
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“Thought he played well getting more reps,” Payton said after Sunday’s game. “We had him starting ahead of Randy, and he’s just got to continue to stay at the level of the quarterback, not behind the quarterback. But I felt like the edges were much better today. Those guys played better. (Fields is a) tough quarterback to contain. We wanted to make sure we were cage-rushing him and he had to beat us in the pocket and not out of the pocket. We felt like if we could keep him there, we would get an opportunity.”
The question now is whether the Broncos can build on the flashes of promise they showed Sunday. They could soon benefit from reinforcements. Baron Browning, who missed training camp and the first four games as he recovered from an offseason knee injury, is eligible to return from the physically unable to perform list this week. It’s not clear how quickly Browning will be able to enter the lineup, but when he does he should provide a more stout edge-setting presence against the run than Denver has had. Veteran Frank Clark, who is dealing with groin and abductor injuries and hasn’t played since Week 1, said he was eyeing a return against the New York Jets on Sunday.
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The most immediate impact, though, could come in another step forward by Bonitto. When the Broncos drafted the 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker at the end of the second round in 2022, general manager George Paton noted his explosiveness off the ball, his instincts for getting to the passer and his uncommon bend around the edge. All of those qualities were on display as Bonitto exploded toward Fields on Sunday.
It was a play that swung momentum and helped the Broncos earn their first victory of the season. Time will tell how much it impacted the trajectory of their season.
(Photo: Andy Cross / Getty Images)
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