Broncos' HC Says Rookie OLB Nik Bonitto 'Has to Work Ever Harder'

Nathaniel Hackett pulled no punches when discussing Nik Bonitto's performance in Denver's ugly preseason loss to Buffalo.

The Denver Broncos' struggles were quite self-evident on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills.

Of course, the fact that preseason results don't amount to a hill of beans is a long-held truism in today’s modern day NFL, but extremely sloppy play from nearly an entire roster of players desperate to stay in the league cannot be dismissed that easily.

Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett knows a lack of intensity is never a good look for any football team, but breaking rookies like pass rusher Nik Bonitto was always going to have its downside. Denver’s 2022 second-round draft choice had a tough afternoon getting the snap count down against the Bills, and Hackett addressed the rookie’s flag inducing issues immediately after the final gun.

“Whenever you're a rookie coming into the NFL, there's always going to be some difficulties and learning a new system and all those things," Hackett said. "He went against a couple of veteran quarterbacks today. So going against those guys, they know how to work the count. They know how to work him. They probably saw that he was trying to get off the ball quick and they got him a couple times in those pre-snap penalties. Then that kind of affects you and then you lose some other things. But you know, he's coming along fine. It's one of those things—he is a rookie, and he's got to work even harder to understand the system.”

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Some of Bonitto's tendencies to get off the snap so quickly can be explained away by his head coach categorizing it as standard rookie struggles and inevitable growing pains. Part of the learning curve for Bonitto is simply gaining real game reps so he can guard against the box of tricks savvy veteran quarterbacks can employ, such as different snap counts and vocal cadences.

For now, at least, that experience has to come by playing in preseason games while surrounded by second and third-string players who frequently make the same rookie mistakes as he does. Hackett was open enough to admit that there were struggles across the entire defensive unit, not just with his young edge rusher, and the age-old issue of poor tackling caused him the most concern.

“Yeah, you get six touchdowns on six drives. Obviously, nobody did good,” Hackett conceded. “So we have to evaluate the group as a whole and we have to tackle better, we have to hold the point better, everything.”

Opportunity still knocks for Bonitto, because there is always the last preseason game to make amends and iron out those pesky pre-snap wrinkles. It could be suggested that Bonitto would greatly benefit from lining up next to more experienced first-teamers like Bradley Chubb and Randy Gregory.

That will simply have to wait until the regular season, so in the meantime, Bonitto will have to learn the finer points of his craft when he’s back in the classroom and on the practice field.

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