After impressing coaches with his preseason performances, Bo Nix made his NFL regular-season debut against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. However, the Broncos fell to the Seahawks 26-20 on the road at Lumen Field in Seattle.
Nix, the No. 12 overall pick and the Broncos’ first-round selection, showed a mix of good and bad but mostly bad in his first NFL start, which isn’t totally unexpected. The team lost by just six points and had three turnovers, two of which came from Nix’s errant throws. Naturally, the rookie is getting a majority of the blame.
With the blame comes a plethora of overreactions from fans and pundits. Nix had received a lot of praise coming out of the preseason, throwing for 211 yards and two touchdowns while completing 76.7 percent of his passes. But as we all know, in the preseason, most No. 1 defenses (or offenses) aren’t starting, which can lead to misleading results.
Against the Seahawks, Nix finished 26-of-42 for 138 yards, two interceptions, and suffered two sacks for a loss of six yards. He also ran for 35 yards and scored a touchdown. There’s obvious work ahead for head coach Sean Payton in improving what he hopes to be his next great quarterback project. But until then, there will be plenty of overreactions.
Overreaction: The Broncos failed again at drafting a quarterback
For a franchise that boasts two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play in John Elway and Peyton Manning, the Broncos have an equally long list of failed quarterbacks. In almost the last decade since Manning’s departure after the 2015 season, Denver has had 13 different quarterbacks make a start.
Since 2015, the Broncos have drafted five quarterbacks, including Nix. All but one made a start, that being Chad Kelly, a seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft. Nix is just the second first-round selection during that span.
When the Broncos weren’t attempting to find their next quarterback in the draft, they were making what turned out to be questionable moves by making trades or acquiring players in free agency. None panned out, giving the Broncos one of the longest playoff droughts in the team’s history, with no appearances since the 2015 Super Bowl.
Now enter Nix, who likely wasn’t Payton or the team’s first choice — they reportedly tried to move up in this year’s draft to select one of the top three quarterbacks. Nix could have used a good game to silence Broncos fans’ cries. But it’s also important to remember that this was just game one for a rookie quarterback making his debut with only preseason work on his resume.
Overreaction: Where is Bo Nix, the accurate passer?
Once Nix got to Oregon, transferring from Auburn, he became one of the best quarterbacks in the country. His final year in Eugene eventually landed him in New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
He did, however, win the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year award. That’s because he became an elite passer in 2023. He made leaps both years he was with the Ducks. Coming from Auburn, he went from a 61 percent completion to 71.9 in 2022. In 2023 he went all the way up to a 77.4 completion percentage, which was best in the country. He also threw for 4,508 yards and 45 touchdowns to three interceptions.
The game for Nix as an NFL passer is now faster than in college. Even though he had 51 games of experience at the college level, nothing can make up for gaining NFL experience through multiple starts.
Many are quick to point at Nix’s 61.9 percent completion percentage on Sunday, with the main sticking point being his two interceptions. The first came on a Broncos 49-yard, 12-play drive in the second quarter that ended with Nix throwing a pick at the one-yard line.
The one that’s getting the most criticism was his second one. With under six minutes to go in the fourth, the Broncos were driving, getting down to about midfield when on second-and-10, Nix rolled to his right and then sailed the ball short where three defenders were waiting.
As the pass was in the air, NFL commentator Adam Archuleta said, “Oh no.” Archuleta then followed up with, “You cannot attempt that pass in the National Football League and think that you’re gonna get away with it.”
Without question, it was a horrible pass, and nothing reflective of the accurate quarterback Nix had been in his last two years at Oregon. However, one game doesn’t reflect Nix’s future, or for that matter, the Broncos’. Though they have been starved of productive quarterback play for nearly a decade, it’s entirely too soon to write off Nix as the next franchise quarterback.
