The Denver Broncos have the best pass rushers who you've probably never heard of.
Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett, Nick Bosa and T.J. Watt get the most headlines as the league's best edge defenders despite Broncos tandem Nik Bonnito and Jonathan Cooper being as good, if not better, than any of them.
Together, Bonnito and Cooper have already combined for 7 sacks. They have 31 combined sacks in the past 21 games. But those two are just half the story, as eight Broncos have at least one sack and two have at least 10 QB hurries, illustrating the tremendous depth of the Denver pass rush.
Bonnito could arguably be the NFL's best at his position. He has the NFL's highest pass-rush win rate (31.4%), per Next Gen Stats, and it's really not close.
But here's what should really concern the Eagles for Sunday's matchup at the Linc: The Broncos aren't just an elite pass-rush group, they also show great pass-rush discipline against quarterbacks known for making plays outside the pocket the way Jalen Hurts does. Playing in the AFC West, they have plenty of experience against Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert.
Bonnito made his first Pro Bowl last year. Cooper hasn't made one yet. But their advanced analytics are among the best in the NFL.
For an edge defender, a pass-rush win of anything at 20 percent or higher is considered elite, 10-15% is considered average. For an interior lineman, elite is 15% or better while average is 8-11%.
Here's how the Broncos measure up:
Player PR Win % Pass Rushes Sacks
EDGE Nik Bonnito 31.4 86 4.5
EDGE Jonathan Cooper 20.0 90 2.5
EDGE Jonah Elliss 17.3 52 1.0
iDL Zach Allen 8.0 125 1.0
iDL John Franklin-Meyers 9.3 86 2.0
iDL D.J. Jones 11.5% 61 1.0
First off, Bonnito's 31.4 win rate is absolutely absurd and blows everyone else away. The next-closest for any edge rusher with at least 50 pass rushes is Colts EDGE Al Quadin Muhammad (23.1%), followed by Micah Parsons at 22.4.
For more perspective, current NFL sack leader Brian Burns of the Giants (5 sacks) has a win rate of 12.6. Bonnito is the NFL's only player with at least 4 sacks and a win rate over 19.0.
Cooper's 20.0 win rate is the NFL's fourth-highest for anyone with more than 80 pass rushes, so the Broncos have two of the top-four EDGE defenders in terms of pass-rush win rate.
Bonnito and Cooper are fast off the edges, bendy, strong and set up sacks for Denver's talented interior linemen. They also play for a defensive coordinator in Vance Joseph who loves to blitz. Most coordinators who have elite pass rushers would rather lean on their four-man rush to have more in coverage but Joseph also has an incredible secondary that features reigning Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain, so he's not afraid to take risks.
Joseph is blitzing at a 30% clip this season, eighth-highest in the league. That's up slightly from last year's 29.5% clip.
The combination of a defensive front that can get after QBs and Joseph's blitzes can make life miserable for QBs, like it was here in the opener for Titans rookie Cam Ward in his pro debut.
I mean, if you're not assigning someone to block Cooper, you're asking for trouble. The Titans tried a play-action bootleg to Ward's left. Not only did Cooper showcase tremendous closing speed as an unblocked defender, but Bonitto fought through a double team from the left tackle and running back to get a clean-up sack on Ward.
It's pretty scary that Denver's backups can come in and also create instant pressure.
That's Jonah Elliss (52) over left tackle and Dondrea Tillmam (92) on the other side of a six-man rush that forced a tight end into blocking Elliss, who easily won with a pressure that forced Ward into stepping into more traffic and getting sacked.
The Broncos have faced some athletic QBs already this year, including Justin Herbert in Week 2 and Daniel Jones in Week 3. They appear to have a good understanding of how to generate an impactful pass rush while also keeping contain.
In the first video, Cooper and Bonitto each rush to the OT's outside shoulder to keep Herbert contained inside the pocket. The T/T stunt between D.J. Jones (93) and Sai'vion Jones (95) prevents Herbert from having a wide-open alley to step into. Herbert tried to scramble up the middle anyway and got dropped.
In the second, Bonnito and Cooper again stayed to the OT's outside shoulder on their rush lanes, which enabled Bonnito to chase down Jones as the QB tried to get out of the pocket.
Here's an example that shows the individual strengths of Bonnito and Cooper.
Cooper's speed and bend not only were too much for TE Tyler Conklin (84) to stop him, but Chargers RT Trey Pipkins couldn't even get his hands on him. On the other side, Bonnito became the picker in the football version of a pick-and-roll, known as an E/T stunt. Bonnito took on both the LG and LT while iDL Zach Allen (99) looped around the traffic to collapse the left side. Herbert couldn't escape the pressure.
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