EDGE, Oklahoma
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 248 lbs
Class: rs-Junior
As a four-star recruit in the 2018 class, Bonitto earned 28 offers coming out of high school. He had his pick of college bluebloods and chose Oklahoma over the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. As a two-sport athlete he also earned scholarship offers to play basketball for teams including Minnesota and Wake Forest.
Bonitto redshirted his freshman season before emerging as a hybrid defender in the Sooners defense in 2019. The following season he saw plenty of success as a pass rusher, earning Second Team All-American honours in the process. He elected to return for his 2021 season and concluded his college career by earning Second Team All-Big 12 honours.
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Strengths
One of Bonitto’s biggest strengths is his athletic profile. He is amongst the best movers at the position in this draft class, with outstanding short area quickness and fluid movement skills. Few are capable of rivalling his upfield burst and he was able to consistently test the foot quickness of opposing tackles in pass protection. The fact he pairs this with easy change of direction ability is what makes him so scary, with the lateral agility to cross the face of his opponent in an instant.
This all resulted in some of the most eye-popping testing numbers of the pre-draft process. Bonitto ran a 4.54 40-yard dash with an absurd 1.53 10-yard split. For context, that split would have ranked in the 91st percentile amongst wide receivers. He paired these outstanding numbers with some impressive results in the explosiveness and agility drills too, scoring above the 84th percentile in every one. Oklahoma often used Bonitto in a hybrid role, frequently dropping him back into coverage. With these kind of measurables it is certainly a role he could take on in the NFL too.
Bonitto pairs this athleticism with some really refined technique as a pass rusher. His hand usage is excellent, quickly targeting his opponent and consistently landing inside their frame. He also possesses a wide variety of moves and has shown the ability to win with a bull rush, swim, ghost move, and more. When he gets to the top of the arc he showcases excellent ankle flexion to bend and get back to the quarterback.
Bonitto also offers a really impressive track record of production that few other prospects can match. He racked up an astonishing 120 pressures over his 580 pass rushing snaps over the past three seasons. This means that Bonitto pressured the opposing quarterback on 20.6% of his pass rushing snaps, a far higher rate than players like Thibodeaux and Hutchinson. Bonitto also led the country in pass rush win rate in 2020 and lead all draft-eligible edges in 2021.
Weaknesses
The biggest concern with Bonitto is his play strength. He has a noticeable lack of power at the point of attack and will get moved off the line of scrimmage with ease in the running game. There were even times when he was outmuscled by tight ends. His lack of lower body strength limits his ability to anchor and this will only be more of an issue at the next level.
This also inhibited his ability to be much of a playmaker against the run. Bonitto flashed the ability to set the edge, but wasn’t consistent in doing so. He would often get lost in the melee of the trenches and was far too easily taken out of plays. This, coupled with his inconsistency in reading the run and the mesh point, will cause concern about his ability to be a three-down impact player in the NFL.
Bottom Line
Bonitto is an outstanding athlete with a pass rushing pedigree that few can match. He needs to improve his functional strength to reach his potential in the NFL, but his combination of refined hand usage and twitch will cause problems for any offensive tackle in pass protection.
Ideal role: Outside linebacker in a 3-4 front
Round projection: 2nd round
