At the beginning of the season, it felt as though the Defensive Player of the Year race specifically favored one Bronco. With six games remaining, the award appears to be all but wrapped up, barring something incredible happening. Unfortunately for the Broncos, this year's award has firmly moved out of Denver and to the east coast.
After Pat Surtain won the award last year, there was a decent chance that the hardware could stay in Denver this year. While he continues to be one of the premier defenders in the entire league, his injury in Week 8 derailed any chance of a repeat. With Surtain out of the picture, it left the work to the highest-paid Bronco on the roster, and the most explosive player on Vance Joseph's defense.
Nik Bonitto absolutely fired out of a cannon to begin the season, but has slowed over the past month or so, and has slipped down the sack leaderboard. As his lead on the league sack leaderboard slipped, his chances of winning the Defensive Player of the Year award have slipped as well. With the Broncos on the bye this past week, Bonitto's award chances were firmly flattened in Las Vegas.
Myles Garrett all but wrapped up the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Award in Week 12
Myles Garrett got to Geno Smith three times on Sunday afternoon in their victory over the lowly Raiders, his fourth game this season with at least two sacks. He exploded for five sacks a few weeks back against the Patriots and has been on an insane pace since. In his four games since traveling to New England, Garrett has totaled 13 sacks, a simply absurd stat.
Garrett is now on pace for a record-setting 28 sacks, which would be enough to get him into MVP conversations. If he finds himself in MVP conversations, then the Defensive Player of the Year conversation would be more than over by that point. For as much as Bonitto has cooled off on the sacking front, this is also a case of Garrett taking the award and running with it.
While it'll be a blow to see neither of the Broncos' candidates bring home the hardware this season, there isn't much either could do to compete with Garrett's production of late. His recent run is arguably the best we've ever seen a defensive end play in the NFL. Unless something fairly insane happens over the last few weeks of the season, Garrett should expect to steal Surtain's award.