Broncos, Nik Bonitto agree on four-year, $106 million contract extension

Parker Gabriel, The Denver Post on Sep 4, 2025

Published in Football

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Nik Bonitto’s meteoric rise has turned him into a very wealthy man.

The Broncos outside linebacker on Thursday finalized a four-year contract extension worth $106 million, his agency, Athletes First, announced on social media.

The deal can rise as high as $120 million if all incentives are reached, and it comes with $70 million in guarantees, multiple sources told The Post on Thursday morning.

The agreement makes Bonitto the highest-paid non-quarterback in Broncos history, moving him past teammate Zach Allen, who signed a four-year, $102 million extension last month.

Bonitto was entering the final year of his rookie contract. By adding four years to his deal, he is now tied to the Broncos through the 2029 season.

“Let’s go win this (expletive) chip now!” Bonitto tweeted Thursday morning.

The ink will dry on Bonitto’s new deal just a few days before the Broncos host the Tennessee Titans for their home opener, ensuring the 25-year-old outside linebacker has long-term stability with a franchise that’s shown considerable loyalty to its core pieces. The money itself wasn’t a stressor for Bonitto, longtime pass-rush trainer Javon Gopie said. Instead, it was a personal pressure to continue proving himself, a journey he’s been on since he redshirted as a freshman eight years ago at Oklahoma.

“I know Nik to be a guy who thinks a lot,” Gopie told The Denver Post on Thursday morning. “So, for him to free his mind going into this season and not have to worry about playing for an opportunity to get paid, I think now we will truly see the best version of him where he can just play free.”

After a second-team All-Pro finish in 2024, Bonitto will now be rewarded as one of the foremost talents at his position. The base value of the deal puts Bonitto’s average annual salary at $26.5 million average per year, below the very top tier but into the top 10 at the position league-wide. His $70 million guaranteed is seventh among outside linebackers.

A Bonitto extension seemed only a matter of time after star pass-rusher Micah Parsons blew the doors off the edge-rusher market, signing a four-year deal worth $186 million ($46.5 million a year) following a seismic trade to the Green Bay Packers. In both July and August, Bonitto noted the market was trending in his favor, and both the Broncos and Bonitto made it known publicly they wanted an extension.

“I feel like they’ve, pretty much, through the whole process, kept me a priority knowing — they want to extend me, they want me here,” Bonitto said in August. “It’s just about when they want to get it done, and when we’re ready.”

The Parsons deal upped the average annual value of top-five edge rusher deals to $39.7 million a year — aided by monster offseason extensions for the Steelers’ T.J. Watt, Browns’ Myles Garrett and Raiders’ Maxx Crosby.

That explosion at the top end of the edge market has driven the No. 5 mark before Bonitto’s deal up 42.2% in the last year alone. The top-10 mark moved up a more modest 11% over the past year, but Bonitto pushed that higher by checking in at No. 10 among edge rushers.

It’s a far cry from where he began in Denver, the highest pick in the Broncos’ 2022 draft class.

Bonitto got off to a modest start, logging 1.5 sacks and seeing sporadic playing time in the second half of his rookie year as the season fell apart and coach Nathaniel Hackett got fired.

He began to show signs in his first year under now-defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, logging 8.5 sacks in 2023 and showing he could be trusted to stay on the field more frequently.

Bonitto, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida native, really took off in 2024, however. He didn’t even start the year off as a starter, finding himself behind Jonathon Cooper and Baron Browning. By Week 3, however, he was on to the top line.

From there, he totaled 13.5 sacks and became one of the most recognized young pass rushers in the sport.

“Last year, at this time, did we think Nik Bonitto would be an All-Pro player?” general manager George Paton said at the NFL owners meetings in March. “I don’t think anyone would have said that.”

The Broncos felt good enough about his performance that they traded Browning midseason, extended Cooper and set the stage for the pair to be anchors off the edge for Denver for years to come.

Denver’s now committed over $300 million in future money across offseason extensions for Bonitto, Allen and Courtland Sutton, three pillars of the Broncos’ recent turnaround. And Bonitto now has the cash to back up his breakout, with the organization and Bonitto himself expecting plenty more from the fourth-year edge.

“I know there was plays I missed out on that I could even, had more sacks on,” Bonitto told The Post in late July. “So that kinda stuff just gives me more fuel to be better.”

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