The most frigid front that Bo Nix will see all winter might just be the orange storm barreling down on him this July.
Friday in Dove Valley marked the first full day of Broncos training camp, and thereby the first day hosting (limited) fans — a sea of blue and Nix jerseys eagerly peering from the south bleachers for their first glimpse of this new-look Denver roster. But they didn’t see anything different from what they would’ve seen during Wednesday and Thursday’s acclimation period. Or June’s minicamp. Or May’s OTAs.
This Denver pass rush has made it near-impossible for any offensive unit — whether led by Nix, Jarrett Stidham or Sam Ehlinger — to consistently move the ball.
Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have only continued to add power to blinding speed-rushes. Rookie Que Robinson continues to blast into Denver’s backfield on roughly half his reps. Even on the offense’s best play of the day — a Stidham bomb to zippy wideout Troy Franklin — second-year bulldog Dondrea Tillman would’ve sacked Stidham before he ever got the chance to cock back his arm.
A few days into training camp, a front that easily led the NFL in sacks last year somehow looks better in 2025.
“I don’t see a reason for us not to be the most dominant unit in the league,” Cooper told reporters after practice. “There’s nothing holding us back, there’s nothing stopping us.
“So, taking it up another level — I don’t think any of us have reached our potential. And we’re just going to keep working until we’re the best in the league.”
That starts with Cooper, who’s become more of an authority figure — both amid his edge group and the general locker room — after racking up a career-high 10.5 sacks in 2024. He dangled in an extensionless void for half of last year. Then Denver slapped him with a four-year, $60 million deal that now looks like highway robbery compared to the rest of the NFL’s inflated edge market.
A secure Cooper has been a more vocal Cooper this summer. Head coach Sean Payton called him one of the group’s “team leaders.”
“I think it’s extremely important to him,” Payton said. “And I think he’s one of our tough competitors. Like, you know, there’s something to him relative to the importance of playing hard with good technique. He’s very coachable.”
He’s a chatterbox, too. The loudest group on the grass on Friday was that defensive front. It was Cooper, beaming and chirping at the offense. It was defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, who Payton cracked sometimes you “hear him before you see him.” It was even John Franklin-Myers, whom Roach barked was pushing him.
They’ve got plenty of reason to be confident, a swarm of fire ants sending Nix and Stidham running for their lives on most every play-action rollout.
“We know we have a lot of work to be done,” Cooper said. “We know we haven’t really proven what we want to yet.”
Indeed, in an even scarier proposition, few in the room have actually hit their NFL ceilings. The 25-year-old Nik Bonitto, Cooper’s right-hand man off the edge, is playing for an extension himself. Cooper affirmed Bonitto’s “not satisfied” with his production even after a 13.5-sack season in 2024. Second-year edge Jonah Elliss is battling back from an end-of-year broken scapula. Rookie Robinson is a “big talent,” as Cooper put it.
And Tillman, the most underrated name of the group, has been as impressive as anyone in the room in the sheer quality of his camp reps.
“Man, he’s out there hooping every single day,” Cooper said. “If you really just sit back and watch him, he’s really crafty and really working.”
Yes, the pads aren’t on just yet. That comes Monday. And Payton mentioned it was “difficult” to properly evaluate younger members of that edge group without full gear.
But Cooper and the rest of his room are plenty bullish.
“We’re really just getting started,” Cooper said.
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