Bo Nix is coming off an impressive first offseason training program with the Denver Broncos. After hearing his name called with the 12th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, Nix arrived in the Mile High City, and consistently showed himself to be as advertised.
But before Nix had even donned an Orange and Blue jersey for the first time, he had an interesting message for Broncos Country—a fanbase that, on one hand, has experienced a lot of success over the decades while, on the other, has suffered eight straight playoff-less seasons.
"[The] fans are incredible. They put so much effort to watch us succeed," Nix said on April 26. "Everyone that is a part of the organization, that’s what our goal is."
The Broncos are trying to win games. If they win games, the Broncos increase the likelihood of making it to the playoffs. If they make the playoffs, the team's odds of appearing in and winning a Super Bowl skyrocket.
That's the ultimate goal. And it just so happens to be one that is shared by Broncos Country. In that sense, when Nix talks about Broncos fans and their Mile-High expectations for the team, everyone — from player to coach to front office — is rowing in the same direction.
Nix's remarks to the fans immediately after being drafted are a good harbinger of what the near future could hold for the Broncos. He spent the offseason learning, assimilating the scheme, getting to know his new teammates, and competing.
Soon, Nix will join his teammates for a rendezvous at 'Compete Street' — which is what the signage hanging over the Broncos' practice field read when the rookie first arrived. That's where the next chapter of his NFL story begins. In order for him to satisfy the fans and the team's expectations, he's got to out-compete a pair of veterans and win the Broncos' QB1 job.
"I’m excited to go out there and compete," Nix said. "I saw the sign out there on the practice field that says, ‘Compete Street.’ I think that’s the best thing that you can have going out to the practice field because that’s all you’re doing. You just compete and compete to be the best for yourself because when you put your team together—it’s a team game."
Nix has had to overcome one obstacle after another to make it to the Broncos by way of the draft's first round. That's the way it goes for any successful individual, and it's all the more true for athletes.
Without failure, and the lessons it teaches, success would not be possible. As NBA legend Michael Jordan once said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."
In Nix's case, he had to overcome coaching instability at Auburn, which eventually led to his transfer to Oregon. He was supposed to be Auburn's homegrown golden boy, but the story didn't shake out that way.
Nix reinvented himself at Oregon, leading the Ducks to 22 wins, and finishing his last year as a Heisman Trophy finalist on the heels of a ridiculous 4,500-yard/45-touchdown passing campaign. Still, it wasn't enough for many NFL media draftniks, who panned Nix's stock by trying to brand him as a "system quarterback" with a noodle arm.
The Broncos did the work to analyze the veracity of such claims. As Sean Payton has recounted, the Broncos removed all of the "gimme throws" from Nix's film at Oregon (as they did for every QB they scouted), and he finished tops in all of the critical categories that make or break a signal-caller.
Payton was so geeked on Nix that he initially hatched a plan to show up at the quarterback's house to announce the pick when the Broncos planned to take him at No. 12 overall in the draft. Payton was dissuaded, ultimately, from doing that, but suffice it to say, he wasn't losing any sleep over the media backlash over Denver taking Nix at No. 12.
One of my favorite things Nix said in his introductory Broncos presser came in response to the trope about his arm strength. Yeah, he completed a lot (and I mean a lot) of those "gimme throws," but his tape was also replete with one explosive vertical pass after another.
“Quite frankly, I completed a lot of long ones, too," Nix said. "I don’t mind when people go back and watch the film. They can see everything they need to watch. That’s here and gone. I’m excited to be here now and do whatever I need to do to win games, and that’s if I’m out there playing, if I’m supporting another quarterback, whatever it is, [I will] do whatever the coaches ask of me and do it at a high level... So I’m excited, and I don’t think I have to show anything else because I’m at the perfect spot now. I just can’t wait to get to work with the team.”
You can say that again. Nix landed in just the right spot. He and Payton plan to achieve some big things together for Broncos Country. Training camp can't get here soon enough.
The cleats hit the grass on "Compete Street" on July 23.
