In the old days, Nik Bonitto’s mentor called him “Mr. Steal Your Girl” to embarrass him.
Smooth. Cool. And quiet. Trainer Javon Gopie loudly bellowed Bonitto’s dubbed nickname in public settings. Gopie loved it. Bonitto hated it.
On Monday, Bonitto was lounging an arm over a bench when the news of the day was broken to him. Teammate Courtland Sutton, the Denver lifer, had agreed to terms on a four-year extension. The first in a logjam of Broncos who need new deals, including Bonitto himself, just got one.
And in that moment, “Mr. Steal Your Girl” turned from introvert to extrovert, his mouth moving faster than his brain. Or maybe vice versa.
“He signed that (expletive) just now?” Bonitto asked, catching himself for cursing. “Oh. My bad.”
It was as if he’d just seen sunshine for the first time. His teeth beamed. His voice peaked. His eyes gleamed, without a single speck of jealousy.
“What?” Bonitto grinned when told the terms: four years, $92 million. “I’ll talk to him. That’s tough. Alright, yeah. I gotta talk to him. But nah, that’s tough.”
Of course, it’s the exact position Bonitto himself would like to be in. The 2022 second-round pick is on the final year of his rookie deal and teetering on the edge of a massive payday. The outside linebacker was a second-team All-Pro in 2025. He also wasn’t even a starter until Week 3 and didn’t even land on ESPN’s executive-and-coach-sourced rankings of the top 10 players at his position.
Is an extension in the back of his head? Obviously, Bonitto affirmed. Does he see the league is not fully sold on him yet? Definitely. But the 25-year-old needs no bulletin-board material or external kindling to stoke the fire.
Some, as Gopie says, play football to feed their families. Some play for a “gold jacket,” Gopie added, referencing the mark of admission in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Bonitto, Gopie said, “Wants to put on a gold jacket.”
“I know I have a great agent, and I know he’ll take care of that,” Bonitto said, referencing agent Tory Dandy. “I have 100% trust in him. And I know the Broncos want me to be here as well. So at the end of the day, I have no worries that they’ll figure out whatever they need to figure out.”
Bonitto’s battle is not for a contract. The battle is with himself, a battle he’s been fighting since he was a four-star recruit coming out of Florida in need of a few lessons in football maturation and more than a few pounds in the weight room.
The QB pressures and hurries rose every year for Bonitto at Oklahoma. They’ve risen every year since he’s been a Bronco, too. Slowly, a game predicated on an elite speed-rush has expanded, as Bonitto’s gone from a 200-pound high school recruit to a shade under 250 pounds this offseason in Denver. It’s the biggest Gopie’s ever seen him.
“There was a trajectory,” said former Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, “that was coming.”
Bonitto expects to stay on that road after a 13.5-sack season in 2024. He dissected his film from last season and felt he missed out on a few more sacks. His teammates expect that from him, as fellow edge starter Jonathon Cooper said he “isn’t satisfied.” His coaches expect it, too. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is convinced he’s going to take “another huge jump.”
“Nik’s humble,” Joseph said during minicamp. “Nik’s a worker, man. If you ask Nik if he’s a great player yet, he would tell you no. And that’s what I want from young players. I mean, he knows that there’s a lot more in there that he can give us as a rusher.”
He now sits in an interesting space, a Pro Bowler who he himself and others view as an unfinished product. But Bonitto isn’t trying to hoard snaps in order to get paid. Quite the opposite.
He revealed a couple of weeks ago that he felt his body started to “break down” near the end of last season, and head coach Sean Payton already mentioned this offseason that the Broncos had to be careful of Bonitto’s snap count. Bonitto said he hadn’t had those specific conversations, but that he was with Payton “100%.”
“Especially with the guys that we have behind us, they’re just as good to go in there and make plays as well,” Bonitto said, referencing depth that includes Dondrea Tillman, Jonah Elliss and Que Robinson.
“And if I can take just a little bit of toll off my body, then I’m willing to do it. Just because, like I said, I want to protect my body.”
The man is running his own race. Sutton got an extension. Zach Allen is up for one. So is John Franklin-Myers.
Bonitto isn’t particularly miffed to still be dangling.
“My job is to come out here, do what I got to do,” Bonitto said. “Show them why.”
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