The Denver Broncos have a serious offseason problem on their hands. Pass rusher Jonathon Cooper was arrested Thursday night on three charges, including two counts of domestic violence and one count of criminal mischief, according to TMZ Sports.
Cooper is being held in a Denver detention facility and is scheduled to appear before a judge Friday morning. His girlfriend was also arrested on the same charges, according to Mike Klis of 9News, who first reported the details of the affidavit.
The incident reportedly started over a cell phone. Klis reported that Cooper’s girlfriend wanted access to his phone, Cooper refused to hand it over, and things escalated from there. Both were charged.
This is a significant blow for a player who has quietly become one of the more important pieces of the Broncos defense. Cooper, 28, had 10.5 sacks in 2024 and followed that up with eight more in 2025. That second number was second on the team last year, and Denver was counting on him to anchor their pass rush again in 2026.
The Broncos drafted Cooper in the seventh round in 2021. He has turned that draft pick into a major success story, signing a four-year, $60 million extension with Denver in 2024. He was supposed to be a long-term building block.
Now the NFL will get involved. The league has its own investigation process under the personal conduct policy, and based on the public information so far, Cooper is going to be in some form of jeopardy. The standard six-game suspension is on the table, and longer punishments have come down for similar incidents.
What makes this even worse for Denver is that the team had real momentum building defensively. Bo Nix’s growth on offense was getting most of the attention, but the Broncos defense had quietly become a unit that could carry games. Losing Cooper for any extended stretch would gut the pass rush.
The Broncos have not issued a public statement as of Friday morning. They typically wait to see what charges hold up before commenting, but the silence will not last long. This is the kind of story that demands a response.
Cooper’s representation will likely point out that his girlfriend was also charged, suggesting this was something other than a one-sided incident. That may matter in court. It does not change the fact that the NFL takes domestic violence allegations seriously regardless of how the criminal case shakes out.
The bigger picture for Denver is that Cooper’s situation now joins a pile of offseason concerns that includes contract negotiations across the roster. The Broncos thought they had their second pass rusher locked in for the next several years. They might be back in the market sooner than they planned.
This story is moving quickly, and the Broncos almost certainly know more than they are saying. Expect updates throughout the day Friday as Cooper goes before a judge and the team decides how to handle the situation publicly.
For a defense that needed every win it could get to keep pace with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC West, this is a self-inflicted wound that nobody saw coming.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
