For whatever reason, some folks in the NFL landscape are still not sold on Bo Nix. The Denver Broncos' second-year quarterback enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons in the history of the NFL at the position and helped lead the team into the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
All Nix and the Broncos have done this year is win 13 games in 17 weeks and capture the AFC West title with one game left to play. The team is also just one win away from the first overall seed in the AFC, which guarantees them a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout.
Thanks to the Houston Texans beating the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 17, the AFC West was clinched for Denver. It's the team's first division title since the 2015 NFL Season, and Denver is also just one win away from tying the single-season franchise record. Well, Bo Nix again proved doubters wrong and has now done something that Justin Herbert has never done.
It took Bo Nix and the Broncos just two seasons to win the AFC West, however...
Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers have never won the AFC West together. Herbert has been the Chargers' starting QB since the 2020 NFL Season, and the veteran has definitely had a solid career thus far.
He has a 52-43 record through 95 career starts. He's thrown for 163 touchdown passes and has a career passer rating of 96.3. The Chargers are also now in the playoffs for the third time in six seasons with Herbert as the signal-caller, so they've been to the postseason 50% of the time with the former Oregon QB under center.
While "QB wins" is not necessarily a statistic that people rely on or even think is real, there is something to be said about the direction of a franchise changing when a new QB arrives, and that is what has happened with Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos.
Nix and the Broncos are 23-10 since the start of the 2024 NFL Season, have made the playoffs in two-straight seasons, and are now AFC West champions. Justin Herbert has been a good QB for a while now, but Nix seems to posses some of those intangible, 'gotta have it' qualities that Herbert simply does not have.
And I don't think it's by pure, dumb luck that Nix has won the AFC West before Herbert...