The 2023 Denver Broncos have been, for the most part, a train wreck. The team has lost five of its first six games, and is trending toward being a massive seller at the 2023 NFL trading deadline. However, there have been a few Broncos who have had underrated starts to the year and deserve more attention than they are getting. Here are three Denver Broncos who are having underrated starts to the 2023 season
1) Nik Bonitto
Bonitto was the Broncos' first selection in the 2022 draft after moving multiple selections for Russell Wilson and was mostly ineffective or absent during his rookie year. Bonitto only saw about 35 percent of the Broncos' snaps in 2022, but that has jumped to 63 percent in 2023, and that number figures to only grow as the Broncos have moved on from both Randy Gregory and Frank Clark. Bonitto, overall, has amassed 5.5 sacks, 18 combined tackles, nine tackles for a loss, nine quarterback hits, and one forced fumble, which resulted in a touchdown return by his partner edge rusher Jonathon Cooper.
Bonitto has stepped into a starting role nicely for the Broncos, and figures to be a big part of their pass rush plans going forward. As he currently sits with 5.5 sacks through 6 games, Bonitto is on pace to finish with one of the more prolific sacking seasons in Broncos franchise history. If Bonitto finishes with 16 sacks, he'd tie Simon Fletcher for the 3rd most in a single season in Broncos history.
17 would tie him with Elvis Dumervil for second in team history. The record sits with Von Miller's 18.5 sacks in 2012, and Bonitto could have that number in his sights. Bonitto deserves much more love for his sophomore season, especially as his playing time only grows.
2) Jonathon Cooper
Flip over to the other side of the defensive line, Jonathon Cooper has impressed early on for the Broncos. Cooper was a 7th round selection in 2021, and has broke out for the first time in 2023. Cooper starts alongside Bonitto, and the two have been one of the more successful pass rush duos in Denver in some time. So far, Cooper has totaled 4 sacks, 30 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 5 quarterback hits, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery on the backside of the aforementioned Bonitto strip-sack on Justin Fields in Chicago.
Cooper is in his third year with the Broncos now, but the prior extent of his work in Denver came as a back-end of the depth chart rusher who would occasionally see an expanded role when there were injuries. In his prior two years of work, Cooper had totaled 4.5 sacks in 30 games, 14 of them being starts. However, injuries to Frank Clark and the ineffectiveness of Randy Gregory, that resulted in Gregory's trade to San Francisco, have led Cooper into a starting role for the first time in his career, where he has almost doubled his career sack total from before this year.
Cooper, like Bonitto, is on pace for a double-digit sack season and is proving himself to be a viable candidate for the Broncos off the edge for a long time to come.
3) Russell Wilson
It is important to consider perspective, here. Russell Wilson is coming off one of the worst seasons in NFL history, considering where he was as a player before the year, the accolades to his name, his Super Bowl ring, what it cost to get him, and then what it cost the Broncos to retain him.
His contract might be one of the worst in football, and the Broncos are suffering from not having any notable selections in the last two drafts. However, the 34-year-old has rebounded quite nicely from his disastrous 2022 season. A year after throwing less than a touchdown a game and double-digit interceptions, Wilson has 12 touchdowns in six games, only four interceptions, and had his QB rating at 99, which is just a tick below his career average of 100.1.
Wilson is completing passes at his highest mark since 2020, and most all of his individual stats have improved from 2022. Now, the obvious rebuttal there is that the bar is incredibly low if you are using 2022 stats, but some of his numbers would be his best marks in some time.
With 11 games left, Russ is on pace for 34 touchdowns in total. 34 touchdowns would be his best mark since the 2020 season, in which Wilson threw for 40. His completion percentage would also be his best since the 2020 season, and assuming he does not get hurt, a full slate of 17 games would be his first full season since 2020 (his 2020 was pretty good). Wilson has far outplayed his expectations for 2023 and is far from the reason the Broncos are 1-5. Could he be better? Sure, every player can. But Wilson's success in 2023 has been a nice surprise for Sean Payton and Broncos fans.