He has been the voice on Nik Bonitto’s shoulder, when those shoulders were slumping. In Bonitto’s ear, when it was hard for him to hear.
Back in his years at Oklahoma, Jamar Cain would walk past a teenage Bonitto at practice, see his arms crossed grumpily, and yank them down to his sides.
I need you today, Cain would tell him. I need you today. Bonitto would listen. Because Cain made his father a promise.
When Cain was hired as Oklahoma’s rush ends coach in January 2020, Bonitto was a rising junior in the doghouse. Again. Back then, the Sooners’ coaching staff labeled the toolsy Bonitto — among others — as an “anti-fatigue guy.” He didn’t much care about Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays — until he got to Saturdays. He needed, as Cain told him many times, to grow up.
So Bonitto’s father, Vince, flew out to Oklahoma from Florida to meet with Cain. And on Cain’s first day at Oklahoma, Vince said the words that forever tied the man to his son’s journey.
“He’s your son now,” Cain recalled Vince telling him. “Take him. Just take him.”
“I got you,” Cain responded. “I got you, Vince.”
Three years later, Denver hired Cain as a pass-rush specialist, reuniting him with Bonitto as the young Bronco was scuffling through his second NFL season. Two years after that, Cain sat shaking his head on a bench in Dove Valley hours after Bonitto signed a four-year, $106 million extension that made him the highest-paid defensive player in Broncos history.
“I almost teared up today because I’m so happy for him,” Cain, now Denver’s defensive line coach, told The Denver Post. “(Expletive) football. For him, I’ve been knowing that guy since he was a kid, you know what I mean?”
The road that kid traveled has had many twists and turns. Bonitto began his career at Oklahoma heavy on athleticism but light on frame, and ended it with pre-draft questions over whether he truly loved the game — even after rounding into one of the best edge rushers in college football. Broncos general manager George Paton asked him those same questions, Bonitto reflected Thursday, on his initial pre-draft visit to Denver.
Bonitto began his career in Denver heavy on athleticism but light on frame, too, as a second-round rookie in 2022. He racked up all of 1.5 sacks in 15 games.
“Just tough times for myself,” Bonitto recalled Thursday, “doubting myself, individually.”
All Bonitto needed all along, Cain said, was confidence. Someone to build him up and not beat him up. It has been the key to unlocking the potential in his uniquely bendy frame. And so Cain toed the delicate balance of reprimanding his body language during “one of his little moods,” as Cain put it, and telling the young man he was going to be a player.
It was a father-son relationship, Cain reflected.
“Everything I was telling him,” Cain told The Post, “was a race to maturity. And to see him mature, as he is now?”
Cain sighed, pausing.
“I’m speechless,” he continued. “I’m so happy for him.”
Nik Bonitto (15) of the Denver Broncos celebrates sacking Spencer Rattler (18) of the New Orleans Saints in front of Landon Young (67), Trevor Penning (70) and Connor McGovern (61) of the New Orleans Saints during the second half of the Broncos’ 33-10 win at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
A one-time “anti-fatigue-guy” has become a guy who played through a bone spur for two weeks this preseason, as defensive coordinator Vance Joseph reflected. Who hardly uttered a peep of dismay throughout contract negotiations. Who’s come into his fourth NFL season having “changed his body,” as Joseph said, now up to 250 pounds.
Bonitto racked up 13.5 sacks in a second-team All-Pro campaign in 2024. But this extension in Denver is based on faith in him rounding into an all-around edge star — in power, in stopping the run, in coverage.
“He’s got this get-off that no one else has,” Joseph said. “And that’s run and pass game alike. He’s a finisher. Again, in our first year, he would get home and not finish the proper way. But he’s learned how to finish.
“He’s gained weight … and he’s a problem. If teams don’t have a plan for him, he can rip your game up.”
Cain has been there every step of the way, since Vince Bonitto first met with him and entrusted him to be an extension of his own fatherhood. The two have become close friends, alternating between good cop and bad cop with Nik. Cain’s wife, DeCarla, now refers to the 25-year-old Bonitto as their second son.
And Cain revels in Bonitto’s rise, as his own career continues to ascend in Denver.
“I feel like my son,” Cain smiled Thursday, “just got a payday today. I feel like I got a payday today.”
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