In a single morning, Nik Bonitto cried enough tears to last a year.

On Thursday, the Broncos outside linebacker signed a four-year contract extension worth $106 million, a hallmark of the road he’s traveled since his struggles as a second-round rookie in 2022. It brought an explosive end to negotiations conducted in the shadows, Bonitto channeling his attention to football over the summer months and leaving any discussions with Denver’s front office to agent Tory Dandy. No hold-ins or hold-outs. No public fuss.

When the deal was finalized, though, the 25-year-old Bonitto let loose. He talked to his father, Vince. He talked to his mother, Sandra Penn. He talked to his brother, Gerrard. And he hopped on Instagram, blasted Rod Wave’s “Richer,” and started belting the lyrics.

I’m richer than I’ve ever been, I’m richer than I’ve ever been. 

“There’s no amount of gratitude that can show, just like, how appreciative I am of everybody involved,” Bonitto told reporters Thursday, shaking his head, nearly out of breath with excitement.

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. It 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. Denver locked up receiver Courtland Sutton in late July, followed with Allen in early August, and finished their run of preseason extensions with Bonitto — no deal coming with even a tinge of public spat.

“Just the communication that my agent had with the front office, I felt like, was a big thing to where we didn’t need to make it anything other than, ‘Just play football, and we’ll handle the rest,’” Bonitto reflected.

Bonitto said Dandy told him an extension would likely get done leading up to Week 1. And the money itself was never a stressor for Bonitto, even as his future dangled this offseason, his longtime pass-rush trainer Javon Gopie reflected. It represented more of 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. 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 drove 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.

Still, Bonitto landed below the Jaguars’ Josh Hines-Allen and Giants’ Brian Burns in average value per year. Those two edge rushers have never made an All-Pro (as Bonitto has), and they recorded fewer than 10 sacks in 2024 (Bonitto had 13.5). The Broncos outside linebacker made clear he’d known he could attract more money on the open market in 2026 with a strong fourth year, but prioritized security with Denver’s organization.

“Just being around a team like this that’s continuing to get better and better — why wouldn’t I want to set myself up to play here now?” Bonitto said.

All of this is a far cry from where he began in Denver, logging just 1.5 sacks in 2022. He saw 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 and finished the year with 13.5 sacks.

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.

“He’s a problem,” Joseph said of Bonitto Thursday. “If teams don’t have a plan for him, he can rip your game up.”

Denver’s now committed over $300 million in future money across offseason extensions for Bonitto, Allen and 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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Originally Published: September 4, 2025 at 8:49 AM MDT