Outside Linebacker · Denver Broncos

Nik Bonitto

No. 15 · 5th season

Second place and still hungry — Bonitto is not done yet

Finishing as a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year is the kind of thing that gets framed and hung on a wall. Nik Bonitto seems more interested in what comes next.

Bonitto plays edge rusher for the Denver Broncos, which means his job is to get to the quarterback before the quarterback gets to anyone else. He was good enough at it last season to land among the final candidates for the best defensive player in the league — an honor that ultimately went to Cleveland's Myles Garrett. Close, but not the hardware.

What Bonitto has said since is simple: be better than he was a year ago. No elaborate plan, no grand statement. Just a player who got a look at the top and decided that was the direction.

For a team in Denver that is still building toward something, that kind of hunger in a core defender matters. If Bonitto takes another step the way he took the last one, the conversation around that award gets harder to resolve.

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