Denver Broncos star edge rusher Nik Bonitto just handed the Seattle Seahawks one of the loudest compliments of the season, and it came from inside a locker room that knows a thing or two about elite defense.
On Bleacher Report’s B/R Handoff, Bonitto was asked which team in the NFC nobody wants to see in the playoffs. His answer: the Seattle Seahawks, thanks to an offense loaded with “dogs” and a defense he believes makes them one of the “scarier teams to play in the playoffs.”
‘People Don’t Want to See’ Seahawks in the NFC Bracket
Bonitto didn’t dance around it when the Seahawks came up.
He said he thinks a team “people don’t want to see” is Seattle, praising “the way their offense is playing” and “the way their defense is playing” before calling the Seahawks one of the more “scarier teams to play in the playoffs,” especially if they win the NFC West.
This isn’t a random fan take. Bonitto is a Pro Bowl, second-team All-Pro pass rusher on a 10-2 Broncos team riding a nine-game win streak and currently battling for the AFC’s No. 1 seed. When a guy living in that weight class circles you as his NFC “sleeper playoff team,” it hits different.
Bonitto even framed the Seahawks as a team other contenders will want to avoid, not just a cute wild-card story. That lines up with how the rest of the league has started to talk about Seattle over the last month.
Why Nik Bonitto Is Buying the Seahawks as a ‘Scary’ Playoff Team
Bonitto’s comments come just days after Seattle’s defense sent a very clear message of its own.
The Seahawks are 9–3 after a 26–0 shutout of the Minnesota Vikings in Week 13, their first shutout in a decade. Seattle forced five turnovers, including an 85-yard pick-six, while holding Minnesota to just 162 total yards.
Zoom out, and the season-long numbers back Bonitto up:
- Seattle is 9-3, tied with the Los Angeles Rams atop the NFC West and firmly in the NFC playoff picture.
- The Seahawks rank top-five in both points scored (around 29 per game) and points allowed (around 18 per game), putting them among the NFL’s most balanced teams.
- They’re holding opponents to under 290 yards per game and 4.6 yards per play, elite territory for a defense that just pitched a shutout.
On offense, the hype is just as real. Jaxon Smith-Njigba leads the entire NFL in receiving yards with 82 catches for 1,336 yards and 7 touchdowns in 12 games, giving Sam Darnold a true No. 1 target who wins at all three levels.
Add in Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet in the backfield, a Pro Bowl-level kicker in Jason Myers coming off a Player of the Month award, and Mike Macdonald’s aggressive defensive scheme, and it’s not hard to see why an opposing pass rusher would label this group as a problem in January.
What Bonitto’s Comments Mean for Seahawks’ Playoff Hype
From a Seahawks perspective, Bonitto’s shout-out does two things at once.
First, it validates what Seattle’s own locker room has been saying: this isn’t a plucky rebuild. This is a legit contender. The Seahawks are second only to the Rams in recent Super Bowl odds and are very much in the race for the NFC’s No. 1 seed heading into Week 14.
Second, it reframes how other NFC teams — and their fanbases — are going to view a Seahawks matchup. When a Broncos star on a defense chasing sack records calls you the team “people don’t want to see,” it starts to sound a lot like the old “nobody wanted to see the Seahawks” days of the Legion of Boom era.
Seattle still has work to do, starting with a tricky Week 14 road game against the 4-8 Atlanta Falcons, but the path is there: keep stacking wins, stay healthy, and let a top-three offense and top-three scoring defense carry you.
If Bonitto is right, and the Seahawks keep trending this way, they won’t just be a “sleeper” for long. They’ll be the NFC team everyone is hoping someone else has to deal with first.
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