When we've seen Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix at his best, he looks like a future MVP candidate.
Through his first two NFL seasons, Nix has put up better numbers than most quarterbacks throughout history. He's 8th all-time in passing yards through a quarterback's first two seasons, 3rd in touchdowns (54), and 7th in completion percentage.
Plus, everyone in Broncos Country has seen what Nix can do in clutch moments. He's already got 10 game-winning drives in the regular season and an 11th in the playoffs -- a Divisional Round stunner against the Buffalo Bills this past season.
Nix has proven he has what it takes, but there are areas of his game that have been inconsistent enough to prevent any real MVP talk, at least from the outside. But Nix said at mandatory minicamp that an MVP is one of his goals, so what does he have to do to make that happen?
3 ways Broncos OC Davis Webb can get Bo Nix playing at an MVP level in 2026
1. More work under center in 2026
One of the most practical ways the Broncos and offensive coordinator Davis Webb can help Bo Nix improve and take his game to the next level in 2026 is to give him more work under center.
Practically speaking, going under center more often quite literally gives Nix more opportunities to do one thing we need to see more of in the offense: Throw off of play-action. Nix has been effective on play-action throughout his career, particularly when he's rolling out, and getting more reps under center will help keep defenses on their heels trying to read run vs. pass.
The Broncos ranked 10th in the NFL last season in percentage of run plays with the QB under center (64.9 percent). There are some teams (like the Rams) that pretty much live under center with their offense (almost 88 percent last year), and the Broncos may not need to go to that extent. But increasing how often they are under center would be a good way to create the balance they lacked last season, and give Nix more opportunities to run play-action.
2. Correcting arm angle/batted passes at the line of scrimmage
Bo Nix has a lot of passes batted at the line of scrimmage, which can be attributed to a number of different things. First of all, the Broncos throw more passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage than any team in the NFL.
Second, Nix will sometimes drift too far up in the pocket before making the shorter throws, which resulted in 13 batted passes last season as well as 16 the year prior. He ranked 2nd in the NFL behind just Cooper Rush in batted passes during the 2024 season, and while he slightly improved in 2025, he was still 9th in the league in that category.
Figuring out ways to unlock the short passing game will be critical for Nix taking the next step, because it's a hallmark of the Sean Payton offense.
Stat I just found: Bo Nix led the NFL last season in short passes (less than 10 air yards) and finished 27th of 33 QBs in yards per attempt on such throws (5.2).#Broncos' quick game won't go away w/Davis Webb -- still a Sean Payton offense -- but effectiveness has to improve.
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) June 17, 2026
Not that batted passes are the only reason why the quick game suffered in terms of efficiency last season (perimeter blocking was not good enough, either), but it's one way the operation could be cleaned up.
3. Crisp operation and personnel groupings
One of the top things the Broncos' offense was working on throughout the duration of OTAs and mandatory minicamp was having a crisp operation coming out of the huddle. Offensive coordinator Davis Webb would make them go back into the huddle and break it again if he didn't like the pace they were working with.
The Broncos had a huge issue last season with getting the right personnel groups out onto the field, changing personnel way too frequently considering their issues with operation efficiency, and that all led to something that was an underrated disadvantage throughout the course of the season.
The play clock was constantly trickling down too low by the time the Broncos would even break the huddle. By the time the personnel was on the field and the huddle was broken, the Broncos had no time for pre-snap motion or even for Nix to scan the defense. Sean Payton took some issue with the idea that the team needed to work more from an up-tempo pace last season, but almost every time we saw the Broncos operate with tempo, the offense had success.
When you have to shorten the verbiage and simplify the personnel, you can get up to the line of scrimmage and diagnose with plenty of time. Having this aspect of the offense cleaned up for 2026 can help Bo Nix take that next step toward playing at an MVP level.
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