The Lead

Through four weeks of the NFL season, ESPN is taking stock of the races for individual awards — and a pair of Broncos earned recognition.

Bill Barnwell handed out each of the top seven awards in a recent article, and he tabbed outside linebacker Nik Bonitto as the Defensive Player of the Year through four weeks.

"I'm just not sure we can put anybody ahead of Bonitto, who rates out as the best pass rusher in the NFL this season by about every metric I can put together beyond sacks -- where his 4.5 are a half-sack behind Brian Burns of the Giants," Barnwell wrote. "Bonitto has done that on 86 pass-rush opportunities, while [Browns edge rusher Myles] Garrett is at 98 and Burns has had 127."

Barnwell also highlighted Bonitto's league-high 27 pressures and monstrous 31.4 percent pressure rate.

"Quick pressures?" Barnwell wrote. "Bonitto's 15 are four more than anybody else in the league, and his 17.4% quick pressure rate is almost laughably outlandish. The second-best quick pressure rate for guys with 80 pass-rush opportunities or more is Garrett at 11.2%, and he's closer to 23rd than he is to Bonitto in first."


Through four games, Barnwell has been impressed by what he's seen from Bonitto.

"He made major strides between 2022 and 2023 and then again between 2023 and 2024," Barnwell wrote. "It looks like he has leveled up into one of the league's best speed rushers in 2025."

Bonitto, though, wasn't the only Broncos player to earn recognition. As players compete for the inaugural Protector of the Year award that's given to the best offensive lineman in football, Broncos tackle Garett Bolles snagged a third-place nod from Barnwell.

"I think Bolles is playing at a really high level," Barnwell wrote. "He has allowed a pressure rate of just 4.6%, the lowest among NFL left tackles, with no quick pressures or quick sacks of Nix."

The season is still young, but the Broncos will enter the second quarter of the season with a pair of players who have garnered national attention.