Pass rusher was not a big immediate need for the Denver Broncos going into the NFL draft, so when the team used their first selection to pick Oklahoma’s Nik Bonitto in the second round, some pundits assumed it was to provide insurance behind injured-riddled Bradley Chubb and Randy Gregory, who’s also missed time due to suspensions and injuries.
Broncos general manager George Paton shot down that notion during his post-draft press conference on Saturday evening.
“That’s not why we took him,” Paton said. “We took him because he was the best player on the board. They’re all different. Randy and — they’re all unique — they’re all different. He just adds a little more explosion. I said at maybe our last presser, you want a wave of pass rushers.
“He’s done a lot — he’s lined up on the edge, he’s played stacked, they blitz him, he’s spied. He’s pretty dynamic in what he does. He’ll just make the group stronger. That’s what you need in our division and that’s what you need in this league.”
Denver will now have a very deep OLB room with Chubb, Gregory, Bonitto, Malik Reed, Jonathon Cooper and perhaps even Baron Browning, who was working with the edge defenders during minicamp last week.
Paton has repeated the adage that you can never have too many pass rushers, and it appears that the Broncos have certainly bought into that belief.
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