Broncos OLB Nik Bonitto expects to make second-year jump

In the middle of his rookie season, Nik Bonitto looked primed to break out.

Inactive in Week 2 and used only sporadically early in the season, the Broncos needed their rookie second-round pick to step up after Randy Gregory sustained a knee injury in Week 4.

After a couple weeks of steadily increasing playing time and an injury to Baron Browning, Bonitto logged a half sack against the New York Jets and another sack the next week in London against Jacksonville. He looked fast off the edge as a complementary piece.

But upon Denver’s return, Bradley Chubb got traded to Miami. Defenses could pay more attention to the former Oklahoma standout. The Broncos’ pass-rush dried up overall and Bonitto went without a sack and logged just eighth tackles (one for loss) total over the team’s final nine games despite playing substantial snaps in all but one of them.

On a hot August morning at training camp in the midst of a week spent flashing his speed off the edge and refining his technique, Bonitto said he thought all that experience — not all of it good — would pay off for him in Year 2.

“I felt like it was decent,” Bonitto said of his rookie year. “I know for myself, I know what I can do and obviously I wish I could have been better. For what they asked me and what I was able to do and able to learn, I feel like it was good for me having that year. I wouldn’t trade nothing for it, just being able to learn from the older guys and being able to have game experience, seeing NFL offenses, it was good.”

Bonitto went into the offseason with a clear to-do list. He wanted to add a few pounds. He wanted to improve against the run. Perhaps most important, he knew he needed to become a more consistent practice player and worker.

“Nik, obviously, has a lot he has to do better as a player and as a professional and I think he knows that,” Gregory said at the end of the season.

Indeed, he did, so he took note of others around him.

“Coming out here and obviously being sometimes on scout, that helps a lot going against the No. 1s every day and seeing how they prepared on the offensive side of the ball,” Bonitto said. “Just looking at guys in front of me, like a Jonathon Cooper who comes in every day and works the right way, does everything correct. Seeing those guys has really helped me.”

On the field, Bonitto thinks adding a few pounds will help him set the edge and play stouter at the point of attack, but he also said he has been buoyed by the conversations he’s had with defensive coordinator Vance Joseph about leaning into his strengths.

“I might not be a guy that’s going to have to set an edge all game,” Bonitto said. “He wants me to use my skill sets to the best of my ability. Whether that’s coming over and swimming over or maybe slipping off and making a tackle in the backfield. Stuff that he knows I can do and what he’s seen me do in my career. Just using that to the best of my ability.”

Bonitto at times is going to have to get his arm into a tackle or tight end and seal the edge. Other times, he might be able to duck under or around a tackle and make a play against the run in the backfield, as he’s done a couple of times in camp.

Bonitto said he didn’t always feel he had that option as a rookie.

“It was a lot that went into it, whether it was coaches trusting me or different offenses I was seeing,” he said. “It was me going out there to not mess up rather than going out there to make plays. … It actually felt good just, like — it’s no shade to any of the coaches last year — but Coach Vance, I feel like he believes in me and believes in the skill set that I have and he has confidence that I can go out there and be a starter and do things the right way and make plays in the backfield and have sacks and do all that stuff.

“It’s been good hearing all that from him.”

He’s also got a familiar face in the building in pass-rush specialist Jamar Cain, who was his position coach at Oklahoma in 2020-21, in addition to a fresh start under Joseph, outside linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite and head coach Sean Payton.

“Obviously sometimes there’s a bigger learning curve for guys,” Payton said. “It’s a production position, right? It’s one in which you’re getting to the quarterback, you’re affecting him — doesn’t mean you have to be sacking him — and then you’re holding up in the running game.