Per Over The Cap:
| Season | Base Salary | Prorated Signing Bonus | Prorated Option Bonus | Per Game Roster Bonus | New Cash Due | Running New Cash Flow | Cap Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1,100,000 | $4,749,889 | $17,754,000 | $17,754,000 | $5,849,889 | ||
| 2026 | $1,215,000 | $4,400,000 | $2,806,200 | $15,246,000 | $33,000,000 | $8,421,200 | |
| 2027 | $24,490,000 | $4,400,000 | $2,806,200 | $510,000 | $25,000,000 | $58,000,000 | $32,206,200 |
| 2028 | $20,990,000 | $4,400,000 | $2,806,200 | $510,000 | $21,500,000 | $79,500,000 | $28,706,200 |
| 2029 | $25,990,000 | $4,400,000 | $2,806,200 | $510,000 | $26,500,000 | $106,000,000 | $33,706,200 |
| 2030 | Void | $2,806,200 | $2,806,200 |
Nik Bonitto gets $38.346 million in new money guaranteed at signing, with a $22 million signing bonus and a $14.031 option bonus due in 2026 constituting the lion’s share. His entire 2027 base salary will vest to fully guaranteed near the start of the 2026 league year, making this amount very likely to be paid, with expected guarantees to be $62.836 million. For 2028, only about a third of his salary, $7.164 million has similar vesting at the start of 2027. Thus, if they cut Bonitto before that amount vests, with a June 1 designation the dead money in 2027 would be almost identical to his current 2027 cap charge, with another $17.218 million allocated to 2028. The standard in Broncos contracts of roster bonuses of $30,000 per game in non-fully guaranteed seasons are retained.
Analysis
In the tiers of edge rusher pay that I had identified in my previous article, this contract is squarely between the Tier 3 and Tier 4 range detected. (Technically, this should now be Tier 4 and Tier 5 due to Micah Parsons’s megacontract with the Packers, but that contract is clearly in an S tier of its own.) At $26.5 million APY, it is almost square in the middle of that gap on that metric.
If we count Bonitto’s 2027 vesting guarantees, which I think is reasonable, they are much closer to the Tier 3 range (around $76 million) than Tier 4 (around $42 million). Thus, this is portion most favorable to Bonitto.
Cash flows, however, are most favorable to the Broncos. After one season, his $33 million is below both Montez Sweat and Rashan Gary in Tier 4, and after the second and third seasons, the amounts only edge out Sweat’s by $2 million in each season. This is particularly visible in seeing his 2028 compensation drop by $3.5 million, before rising $5 million in its conclusion. Had Bonitto been franchise tagged twice, he would be likely to have earned about $61 million through 2027, whereas with this contract he’ll only get $58 million in new money by then.
Thus, I consider this deal to be moderately friendly to the Broncos. Bonitto himself has acknowledged as much. It’s safe to say that George Paton has done excellent work acquiring talent among rookie classes with more limited resources, and has been similarly excellent in being proactive in getting ahead of the market, and along with Sean Payton and the ownership group, are fomenting a place where players want to be. The foundation of the Broncos looks to be very solid for seasons to come through the work that has been done in recent months.