At one point this season, a number of analysts and talking heads in the NFL world speculated if the Denver Broncos would be better off playing Jarrett Stidham at the quarterback position over Bo Nix. Some speculated the team should prepare to potentially replace Nix in the 2026 NFL Draft.
The reality is, progression and development in the NFL are rarely -- if ever -- linear. In other words, you're not going to see players climbing some intangible ladder every single week until they reach superstardom. The path to improvement involves big games as much as it involves failing forward.
Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi was asked recently about the improvements Nix has made in his second NFL season, and he said something that few in the NFL world have actually admitted this year.
Joe Lombardi said Broncos QB Bo Nix has made strides in many key areas this season
“I think for a quarterback, I think comfort level’s always the thing that you want to see him [grow] as he gets more experienced as a young quarterback. Just feeling more confident, calmer as he’s breaking the huddle, thinking less. I think that’s come a long way. I think his patience in the pocket has improved. Keeping in his base, not running early when he doesn’t have to. I think that’s been a big improvement. The last Vegas game and the Chiefs game, they were really keeping a lid on it and forcing you. I think we had four drives in the Chiefs game that were 13 plays, or even maybe three that were over 15. That’s hard to do, and you have to be really precise as a quarterback to do that. We’d like to be more explosive, but the fact that we’re able to do that I think has been a credit to his progression.”
- Joe Lombardi (via Broncos PR)
The part about Nix's patience and precision against the Raiders and Chiefs is a big one. All anyone wants to do is take a look at a "Next Gen Stats" passing chart and poke holes in the fact that there aren't a lot of downfield passes. The reality of the situation is that so many teams have respected the deep ball for the Broncos after the success they had last year, and they're forcing them to win other ways.
Especially when you have a running game that is adapting (still) to the injury suffered by JK Dobbins, of course teams are going to dare you to run the ball. They're going to dare you to run the ball and beat zone coverage with precision passing.
And to Nix's credit, he's been able to do that almost the entire year. It hasn't always been pretty, but the results have been there to the point that the Broncos are 13-3 and two wins away from hosting the AFC Championship Game.
Everyone in the Broncos' fan base and everyone on the team would love to see a couple of things happening more often right now: Takeaways on defense and explosive plays on offense. Those are tide-turning plays that haven't been there nearly as often for the Broncos this year, and plays which you could say would definitely give the Broncos more cushion than we've seen this season.
But nothing can take away from the clear improvements being made by Nix. His confidence is there, and he's showing situational awareness that can help this team win a Super Bowl in just his second year in the league.
It's about time others in the NFL world started admitting it.