Ad Disclosure
Bo Nix is 1-2 as a starter to begin his professional career. He hasn’t yet thrown a touchdown pass for the Denver Broncos. He has been sacked almost as many times through his first 3 professional games as he was in 14 games for Oregon last season. And he’s been picked off 4 times already.
It has not been the best of starts for Nix. But it has not been entirely his fault. And Denver did finally break through last Sunday in a 26-7 win over the Buccaneers that saw Nix run for a touchdown and post a career-high 81.0 QBR.
The working relationship between Nix and Denver head coach Sean Payton has been a topic of conversation in Denver. Some fans have questioned the coach. Payton openly questioned after the Week 2 loss to Pittsburgh if the offensive scheme fit the personnel.
If there’s someone Nix might be able to lean on in his rookie season, it might be former New Orleans Saints legend Drew Brees. The former Super Bowl champion spent 15 seasons in New Orleans — all of them with Payton as his coach. Brees made an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Thursday and offered some advice to the Broncos rookie.
“Be just as demanding right back to (Payton),” Brees said. “Sean likes that. Sean wants to see you confident and sure. Obviously Sean and I got to a place with our relationship where it was almost like we could finish each other’s sentences. I knew exactly what he was thinking before he called the play.
“… Of course there were moments where, man, I’m gonna make a mistake. We got to the point where he knows that I knew that I made the mistake. He doesn’t need to be yelling and screaming at me. But for a young quarterback who he’s trying to really teach and coach and get on the same page with him, there’s probably going to be a lot more of that. He’ll be pretty firm with you at times.”
.@drewbrees tells @ColinCowherd the one piece of advice he would give Bo Nix:
“Be just as demanding right back to him. Sean likes that. Sean wants to see you confident and sure.” pic.twitter.com/sDneAvp3Y9
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) September 26, 2024
Nix has been through quite a bit throughout his quarterbacking career. He was a legacy recruit at Auburn with tremendous expectations on his shoulders. He went through ups and downs with his hometown school. He left. He won big elsewhere, and he lost big. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist, a team leader, and a guy who came up excruciatingly short.
Now in the NFL, Nix was voted a captain as a rookie, signaling just how much respect he’s already been able to command in the locker room.
The start to the season was rocky, but Payton never put the blame on his young quarterback. The Broncos haven’t been able to run the football with any consistency. “Are we putting our guys in the best position? We’re rotating a lot of personnel groups in and out, and I don’t know if that’s helping us, honestly,” Payton said after the Steelers loss.
Nix has owned his shortcomings, too. He threw a red zone interception for the second consecutive game in the loss to Pittsburgh and was brief when asked what happened on the throw after the game: “Dropped back. Threw it to the other team.”
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning praised Nix’s leadership and approach all throughout their time together in Eugene. Payton has been impressed with the quarterback’s resiliency.
“He’s won and won and won and won [in college] and honestly I haven’t seen him flinch,” Payton said after the team’s first win. “He hadn’t flinched, we had a good plan, and the players did a good job.”
We’ll see where Nix and Payton can build from there.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
