The Denver Broncos interest in Bo Nix is well-documented, and he could make Sean Payton totally forget about missing on Patrick Mahomes. Another well-documented event is what happened during the 2017 NFL Draft, as Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints reallly loved Patrick Mahomes and wanted to draft him.
As we know, the Kansas City Chiefs traded above the Saints and took Mahomes right before the Saints were on the clock. Well, seven years later, Payton found himself in another situation during the 2024 NFL Draft where he was downright in love with Bo Nix.
While the consensus opinion on Nix was lower than what the Broncos thought about him, Denver didn't hesitate to use the 12th overall pick on the passer, and through about a year and a half in the NFL, it's clear that Nix is the right QB for the job, and it's also clear that many people just flat-out missed on their evaluation of the QB. Well, some recent behind the scenes reporting indicates just how good of a prospect Bo Nix was, perhaps eventually making Sean Payton forget he ever missed on Patrick Mahomes.
Sean Payton's evil genius formula might have given him the best elite NFL quarterback
Here is ESPN writer Seth Wickersham about the NFL Draft process with Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos:
"Bo Nix was by far the most efficient and it wasn't even close."@colincowherd and @SethWickersham talk about what Sean Payton saw before drafting the Oregon QB pic.twitter.com/dJ5yDT3Gv6
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 5, 2025
Wickersham talks about how he met with Sean Payton before the 2024 NFL Draft. Payton showed him a folder of his own formula that he created to try and evaluate quarterbacks, and Nix was apparently at the top of all of these lists. Wickersham continues and says that Payton began this process in the 2017 NFL Draft, so it's no surprise that he wanted Patrick Mahomes, as Mahomes was highly-ranked in these lists that Sean Payton had created.
The last point he makes is that Caleb Williams was pretty far down these lists that Sean Payton had whipped up, and when you consider how sloppy Williams was in 2024 and how efficient Nix ended up being, the formula Payton created seems to be quite accurate.
Sean Payton clearly wanted to bounce back in a big way after missing out on Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft, and his Bo Nix selection in the 2024 NFL Draft may just make Payton forget he ever missed on the player.