Kansas City Chiefs rookie LB Nick Bolton has been turning heads with his defensive play lately, but now he’s being recognized by the league for his performance.
Bolton has earned the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Month honors for October, a month where he tallied 43 total tackles (8.6 per game) and seven tackles for loss in five games. It was the most by any rookie defenders since Week 4.
Bolton managed to do this playing at two different positions, starting out at SAM linebacker and taking over for Anthony Hitchens at the MIKE linebacker the past two games. He wore the green dot, acting as the defensive signal-caller in both the Chiefs’ Week 8 win over the New York Giants and his historic 15-tackle, 4-tackle for loss performance against the Tennesse Titans in Week 7.
A second-round draft pick in the 2021 NFL draft, Bolton joins an elite group of former Chiefs defenders to be honored with this award. The last player to receive the award for Kansas City was Marcus Peters in December of 2015. Former Chiefs safety Eric Berry was the first defender on the team to ever win the award back in December of 2010.
Bolton also became the third former University of Missouri player to earn Defensive Rookie of the Month honors, joining Sheldon Richardson (November 2013) and Aldon Smith (October, December 2011).
Surely this is only the beginning of the recognition that the 21-year-old linebacker will get for standout play during the course of his career.
