Football comes down to individual matchups.
The tackles handle the edge rushers. The guards and center handle the interior defensive linemen. The tight end may chip, then gets covered by a linebacker or strong safety. A running back may chip as well, then gets covered by a linebacker or edge rusher (very rarely). The nickel cornerback covers the slot wide receiver. The boundary cornerbacks cover the boundary wide receivers. And the full safety is the center fielder.
Ahead of Week 11, head coach Sean Payton zoomed in on a pair of edge rushers and why they are “challenging” to his and opponents’ offenses.
Sean Payton on Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper
Enter Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper. The pair of Broncos edge rushers have combined for 17.0 sacks. Bonitto and Cooper are both inside the top 10 in sacks in the league. And, they’re playing on the No. 1 defense in PFSN’s Defense Impact Score. Bonitto and Cooper are No. 12 and 27, respectively, in PFSN’s EDGE Impact Score as well.
Circling back to Payton, though, he said, “Well, each week when we do our game plan, protection plan. We talk about who’s getting the nudges. It becomes more challenging if there’s two (potent edge rushers). Because you can direct attention to one sometimes. But I think more importantly, in this game, it’s also understanding how effective Patrick (Mahomes) is off schedule. And how to rush him is important.”
It’s high praise for Bonitto and Cooper from Payton. The cat-and-mouse game will be fun to watch in Week 11 against Kansas City. Payton is right — the Chiefs can’t nudge or chip both edge rushers every play.
Conversely, it’ll be interesting to see if the pass rush allows the Broncos to sit in man-to-man coverage all game as well.
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The first time these two teams played each other in 2024, the Broncos held the Chiefs to under 17 points. The Chiefs then played backups in the second matchup in 2024, which came in Week 18.
Both teams are jockeying for playoff positioning this week. The Broncos are 8-2, on a seven-game winning streak, and the Chiefs are 5-4 coming off a bye week.
Elsewhere, the Broncos face the same problem the Chiefs face stopping Bonitto and Cooper. Denver has to try slow down defensive tackle Chris Jones, who has only 2.0 sacks this season but has long been one of the most impactful interior defensive linemen in the NFL.