ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – The Denver Broncos have selected tackle Garett Bolles as the club's winner for the 2025 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, it was announced Thursday.

Considered the NFL's most prestigious honor, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year recognizes a player for his outstanding leadership both on the field and in the community. All 32 teams select winners who are recognized during the week leading up to Super Bowl LX, and the national winner will be announced during NFL Honors on Thursday, Feb. 5.

A two-time Man of the Year club nominee, Bolles was selected by the Broncos in the first round (20th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft from the University of Utah. Considered an iron man amongst his peers, Bolles has started all 128 games played during his nine seasons with the club.

Bolles has two primary focus areas with his community outreach efforts: providing meaningful and impactful mentorship to youth with learning differences and justice-involved youth.

This year, Bolles partnered with renowned speech-language pathologist Jennie Bjorem to launch the Bjorem & Bolles (B&B) Apraxia Education Initiative and funded the opening of a first-of-its-kind education and training center in Colorado. Inspired by his son's diagnosis with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), the center serves as a hub for training educators, speech-language pathologists and families to better understand and support children with speech or language-based learning differences.

Bolles is actively involved with Vertical Skills Academy, a Colorado school serving children with dyslexia and language-based learning challenges. He frequently visits classrooms, funds resources and invites students to team facilities for hands-on learning and mentorship experiences.

Over the last several seasons Bolles has been an active participant in a juvenile probation court mentorship program in Arapahoe County while also making regular visits to the Marvin W. Foote Youth Services Center. He has impacted hundreds of individuals with his outreach, providing mentorship and developing a unique, in-person connection with each child. Bolles regularly records personalized videos of encouragement based on letters submitted to him and attends court hearings to show additional support. He also assisted the Arapahoe County 18th Judicial Youth Probation Court to redecorate a juvenile court room in an effort to make it more inspiring to youth.

In 2023, he was presented with the Raymond C. Frenchmore Juvenile Law Award from the Arapahoe County Bar Association. The award has honored outstanding service to the juvenile justice system in Arapahoe County since its inception in 1992.

All of Bolles' community work is aligned with his personal foundation, the GB3 Foundation. Its mission is to empower youth with learning disabilities to find success through mentors in educational strategies, spiritual and mental wellbeing, whole body nutrition and physical health for the purpose of equipping them to live their dream.

Previous Broncos nominees for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award include inside linebacker Alex Singleton (2024), guard Dalton Risner (2022), safety Justin Simmons (2019-21), outside linebacker Von Miller (2018) and cornerback Chris Harris Jr. (2017). John Elway (1992) is the only Broncos nominee to win the national award, which was first given in 1970 and renamed after the Chicago Bears' Pro Football Hall of Fame running back in 1999.

ABOUT THE WALTER PAYTON NFL MAN OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

Each team's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year winner will wear a helmet decal through the end of the season in recognition of his accomplishments on and off the field. All current players who have won the national award will wear a Man of the Year patch on their jerseys in perpetuity.

Each winner will receive up to a $40,000 donation to the charity of his choice while the national winner will receive a $250,000 donation to their chosen cause with all donations made possible by the NFL Foundation and Nationwide Foundation.

Fans are once again encouraged to participate in Nationwide's annual Charity Challenge, a social media and online contest that allows fans to show support for their favorite Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year club winner. Fans can vote on X/Twitter by posting #WPMOYChallenge along with the last name/X handle of their chosen player or by voting directly on NFL.com/ManOfTheYear.

The charitable beneficiary of the player who receives the most collective hashtag mentions and online votes will win an additional $35,000 donation from Nationwide, with the nonprofit partners of the runner-up and third-place finishers receiving $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. Charity Challenge voting takes place from December 4, 2025, through January 5, 2026.

More information about the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award and Charity Challenge can be found at NFL.com/manoftheyear.