2024 was quite a season for Denver Broncos rush linebacker Nik Bonitto. The former Oklahoma Sooner turned a massive corner in Year 3, going from being a rotational depth player to a Pro Bowler and All-Pro.
Bonitto changed his jersey number (from No. 42 to No. 15) and almost everything else about his NFL profile this past season.
Bonitto's rise helped lead the Broncos to a 10-win season — the team first plus-.500 campaign since 2016 — and a playoff berth. The Broncos hadn't been to the postseason since 2015 — a squad that featured the team's last All-Pro edge rusher (Von Miller).
Miller earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2015, and would go on to garner second-team nods in 2017 and 2018 before being traded. Bonitto is the first Broncos All-Pro since Miller, second-team though Nik was in 2024. It's interesting how those two things — All-Pro pass rushers and playoff berths — tend to run parallel.
Bonitto would finish with 13.5 sacks on the season, scoring two defensive touchdowns (in back-to-back weeks). That put the finishing touches on an amazing third-year campaign, but what about the 2024 season will Bonitto most take with him into 2025 and beyond?
“Individually, I’m still mad I missed some plays this year just looking back at it," Bonitto said on Monday as the Broncos cleaned out their lockers. "They could have been made a little better. As a team, I’m just proud of the way that we fought this year and how we proved a lot of people wrong.”
The Broncos definitely proved people wrong, including a lot of talking heads and the oddsmakers. Bonitto may look back on his 2024 film and feel like he didn't fully capitalize, but he is very deserving of the individual accolades coming his way.
He now enters Year 4 and the Broncos will want to get him re-signed as soon as possible. Before this past season, Bonitto was trending toward being a 'maybe we'll look to bring him back after his last year' type of guy.
But in the wake of his 2024 emergence, Bonitto has become indispensable to the Broncos. He's got a big payday coming his way sooner than later.
