The Denver Broncos have had a pretty solid start to the season, and a couple of their top starters are playing out of their minds. Last year, we saw Patrick Surtain II capture the Defensive Player of the Year award in what was one of the best seasons from a CB in the history of the NFL.
Could the Broncos have another major award winner in 2025? Well, it's obviously too early to have a definitive answer there, but things are definitely trending in the right direction for a couple of players. The Broncos are 2-2 through four games but could very easily be 3-1 or even 4-0.
After the quarter-mark of the 2025 NFL Season, it's clear that two of Denver's top starters stick out as early favorites for some major individual awards.
Garett Bolles and Nik Bonitto are getting attention as potential major award winners in 2025
Bill Barnwell of ESPN put both Garett Bolles and Nik Bonitto on his shortlists for the top candidates for Protector of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2025:
Evaluating Bolles as a pass blocker can be difficult. The Broncos have a very good offensive line from one through five, so there's no weak spot the line has to cover up. Sean Payton's scheme often asks Bo Nix to get the ball out quickly in obvious passing situations like third-and-long with screens and throws short of the sticks, so Denver's linemen aren't stuck holding up for a long time in the toughest pass-protection spots. At the same time, Nix's inconsistent movement at the end of his drop can make him a more difficult player to protect than other quarterbacks.
Doing my best to account for all that, I think Bolles is playing at a really high level. He has allowed a pressure rate of just 4.6%, the lowest among NFL left tackles, with no quick pressures or quick sacks of Nix. Quinn Meinerz deservedly gets credit as the most fearsome run blocker on the Broncos' line, but Bolles can hold his own; he bowled over Joseph Ossai on a 16-yard J.K. Dobbins run during Monday's blowout win over the Bengals.
On Nik Bonitto:
I'm just not sure we can put anybody ahead of Bonitto, who rates out as the best pass rusher in the NFL this season by about every metric I can put together beyond sacks -- where his 4.5 are a half-sack behind Brian Burns of the Giants. Bonitto has done that on 86 pass-rush opportunities, while Garrett is at 98 and Burns has had 127.
Leave sacks aside. Pressures? Bonitto's 27 are the most in football, and his 31.4% pressure rate is about double that of superstars like Hines-Allen and Aidan Hutchinson. Quick pressures? Bonitto's 15 are four more than anybody else in the league, and his 17.4% quick pressure rate is almost laughably outlandish. The second-best quick pressure rate for guys with 80 pass-rush opportunities or more is Garrett at 11.2%, and he's closer to 23rd than he is to Bonitto in first.
Bonitto doesn't get double-teamed as often as the Garretts and Hutchinsons of the world, both because he doesn't have the reputation as a superstar and because the Broncos have a couple of very good rushers elsewhere on their D-line in Zach Allen and Jonathon Cooper. He's not the same caliber of run defender as Garrett or Simmons, but Bonitto is fast enough for the Broncos to have used him as a spy when they've played Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen in the past.
Even acknowledging those realities, though, Bonitto has simply been head and shoulders above everyone else in getting to the quarterback and creating problems this season. There might not be anybody better right now at getting off the line and around opposing tackles; there's usually at least one snap per game where it looks like Bonitto was in the offensive huddle and knew the snap count and the protection scheme. He made major strides between 2022 and 2023 and then again between 2023 and 2024. It looks like he has leveled up into one of the league's best speed rushers in 2025.
Bill Barnwell can clearly see how good Garett Bolles and Nik Bonitto have been for the Denver Broncos in 2025, and they're both opposite players when you think about it - it's a great thing that we haven't really heard Garett Bolles' named called much at all this year.
Conversely, we hear Nik Bonitto's name called about five times a game at this point. Both players were drafted and developed by the Denver Broncos and also play hugely important positions as well. Both Bolles and Bonitto have to keep their feet on the gas here, but the early returns are great for each player, and people across the NFL landscape are taking note.