Nik Bonitto has already shown he can carry star-level expectations, but the Denver Broncos may be asking him to do even more this season.
Bonitto turned in a huge year for Denver, piling up sack production and earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors for the second straight season. But the final stretch of that run came with a catch: he was playing through a wrist injury that forced him to wear a cast on his right hand for much of the year, according to a report from Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk via Mike Klis of 9News.
He had surgery on the wrist in February and is now cleared, but the injury clearly affected what he could do on the field. Williams noted that after his hot start, Bonitto finished with only six sacks over the final 11 games.
“It was a little bit of everything, really,’’ Bonitto explained in the reoprt. “It was just trying to work through the whole wrist thing.
Not being able to have . . . . wearing the cast, it kind of takes away a lot of stuff you can do. Hard to shed; hard to grab; all those things.”
Bonitto also acknowledged that opposing offenses have started treating him like a bigger problem. Since the Broncos’ final game of the 2024 season against the Kansas City Chiefs, he has totaled 10 sacks in a seven-game stretch, and that kind of burst has drawn extra attention.
“It was game-plan stuff too,’’ Bonitto said. “Getting doubled more, getting chipped and cut more. It was all those things in a combination where it was a learning process for me as I continue to grow in my career.”
That challenge could get even steeper this season because Jonathon Cooper, Bonitto’s fellow standout at linebacker, is currently dealing with legal issues tied to a pair of domestic violence arrests, and a suspension appears likely. If that happens, Bonitto could see even more of the defense’s focus shift his way.
For Bonitto, though, the message is simple.
“I want to continue to grow and be a better player than I was the previous year,’’ Bonitto said. “Whatever comes with that comes with it, but I just want to continue to get better.”
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