As the 2025 NFL regular season winds down, teams are either positioning themselves for a playoff run or already considering what changes need to be made for next year. For the Denver Broncos, a Super Bowl run could be in the team's immediate future.
The Broncos currently hold the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff race, meaning that they would have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs if they are in that spot after the regular season. It has been a tremendous turnaround for Sean Payton's team. Which player has been most valuable in the team's remarkable run in 2025?
The Most Valuable Player award is often reserved for the quarterback of the team, the most important position on the field. But for the Broncos, Bo Nix is still getting his bearings in year two of his career and many of the team's harshest critics feel that the Broncos win games in spite of Nix.
Though Nix has been much better than most are willing to admit, he is not the MVP of the team this season. With a defense that is playing incredibly well and is on pace to break the league's all-time sacks record, you have to look at that side of the ball.
Nik Bonitto had a breakout season in 2024, registering 13.5 sacks. That led to him being awarded a well-deserved four-year contract extension just before the season kicked off. He's made the Broncos proud that they made that move.
HOF'er Demarcus Ware on Nik Bonitto..
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) December 8, 2025
Does this track? @Broncos @UpAndAdamsShow
pic.twitter.com/HMuvxJ79tn
Through 13 games this season, he has 12.5 sacks and has positioned himself as one of the best pass-rushers in the league. The biggest strength of the Broncos team is the way the defense gets after the quarterback and the consistency with which that group gets pressure, so the most valuable player should come from that group.
If that's not enough, let's take a look back to just one week ago, when Bonitto made an unforgettable play against the Washington Commanders, one that was literally the difference between a win and a loss.
Nik Bonitto saves the game for the @Broncos in OT! Pic.twitter.com/4vLic6dAks
— NFL (@NFL) December 1, 2025
When the Broncos needed a play, Bonitto was there to make one. If the team goes on to big things this season, this play will loom large in whatever that success ends up being, as the NFL is often a league of inches and this play could be the difference in a tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed, for instance.
READ: Courtland Sutton moving up Broncos' all-time receiving list
Bonitto is becoming one of the best defensive players in the league, even if he is not often included in that conversation and, at least to this point, has been the Broncos' most valuable player.
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