The Denver Broncos have talent on their roster, although Pro Football Focus would seemingly beg to differ. PFF's quarterback rankings had Bo Nix at 19th, which might seem fair to some, but the analytics giant had some questionable signal-callers ranked ahead of him.
When it came to wide receivers, PFF had Courtland Sutton ranked way too low at 31 (out of 32). Now we arrive at PFF's top 32 edge rushers, and unsurprisingly, one Bronco is buried in the rankings, with another double-digit sack artist not even ranked.
First up was Nik Bonitto, whom PFF ranked 23rd out of 32. Examining the top 10 edge rushers, Bonitto isn't on those players' level, but as you work your way from 11-22, questions about his placement arise.
"Bonitto has steadily improved through his first three NFL seasons, boosting his PFF grade from 52.4 as a rookie in 2022 to 78.7 in 2024. He ranked third in the league with 13.5 sacks and earned the highest coverage grade among edge defenders at 92.6," PFF's Ryan Smith wrote.
Let's look deeper into PFF’s grades and stats to highlight why 23 is too low for Bonitto and why he should be ahead of multiple edge rushers ranked ahead of him.
Out of 72 edge rushers who played at least 500 total snaps, Bonitto had the 24th-most snaps. He had the 16th-most pressures and the third-most sacks while ranking 16th in overall defensive grade, 48th in run blocking grade, 61st in tackling grade, 18th in pass-rush grade, and first in coverage grade.
We all know passing is king in the NFL, so more weight is put into the pass defense, both coverage and pass rush, than run defense. However, run defense keeps Bonitto from being close to the top 10.
Carl Granderson ranks directly ahead of Bonitto, and he's a run defender coming off the best year as a pass rusher, where he tied Bonitto in pressures and had six fewer sacks. Granderson also doesn’t offer up anything in coverage. While he's a great run defender, pass defense is king, so he shouldn’t be ahead of Bonitto.
Bradley Chubb ranks 21st and didn’t play in 2024 due to injury. While Chubb had a great 2023 season, missing all of last season shouldn’t land him above the Broncos' second-team All-Pro. The same goes for Abdul Carter, who ranks 20th and has never played a snap in the NFL.
Carter is a high-quality rookie, as evidenced by his No. 3 overall selection in April's NFL draft, but Bonitto has proven to be a great pass rusher and excellent in coverage, getting better each season, and should be ahead of both.
Then we arrive at Jaelen Phillips, a good player when on the field, but he has only played more than 500 snaps twice in his NFL career, both coming in his first two years, and yet, he ranks 18th. Andrew Van Ginkel checks in at 17th, and while he quietly had a good 2023 season and exploded in 2024, he didn't emerge in the same way that Bonitto did as a pass rusher, and he isn’t that much better of a run defender or tackler to land ahead of him.
Rashan Gary ranks 19th on the list, and you can make a case either way, but the best ability is availability, and he has issues staying on the field consistently. When he is on the field, there's no debate about him being better than Bonitto, but since medicals are a factor, the case is there for the Broncos' edge rusher to be higher.
This list can serve as both good and bad news for the Broncos when it comes to contract extensions with Bonitto, and teams use outside stuff like this to get an idea of where the NFL consensus lies with players.
Bonitto ranks 23rd, which is the good news, as he's purportedly looking for $20-plus million on an average per year basis, where only 12 edge rushers are currently paid. However, he's right around Van Ginkel and Gary, who are paid $23 and $24 million annually, respectively.
Then we get to the even bigger disrespect of not having Jonathon Cooper as a top 32 edge rusher in the NFL. Again, passing is king, and Cooper ranked 14th in pressures and seventh in sacks. However, Cooper is a better run defender than Bonitto, which helps his case compared to some of the edge rushers who made this list.
For example, Cooper vastly outperformed Montez Sweat in all phases, who ranked 31st on the list. Nate Herbig didn’t even play enough snaps to qualify for PFF's pass-rush rankings as a specialist, totaling 47 pressures and seven sacks, not even close to Cooper's numbers. Herbig checks in at No. 32.
To be fair, Cooper played over 200 more pass-rush snaps than Herbig. But Cooper's complete ability to be an actual starter, even with passing being king, should be a huge factor in favor of him ranking higher than a guy like Herbig.
There are about five more players that you can argue that Cooper should eclipse in these rankings, but again, he didn’t even make the list. Sweat and Herbig ranked 31st and 32nd, respectively, and neither deserves to be in the top 32 edge rushers over Cooper.
The Takeaway
Bonitto ranking No. 23 is too low, even when you look at PFF's own metrics, so we have a big incongruency. It's disrespectful in and of itself, but omitting Cooper in favor of a situational pass rusher?
That's even more egregious. Maybe NFL.com was right to name Cooper as the Broncos' most underappreciated player.
