The Denver Broncos have been sprinting their way toward success over the last month or so, winning four of their last five games and doing it with a strong ground game. The Broncos have run for over 100 yards in five consecutive games, including 225 rushing yards on Thursday night against the Saints.
Believe it or not, rookie quarterback Bo Nix is 2nd on the team with 255 yards rushing this season, the fourth-most out of any quarterback in the NFL this season. He's also 1st on the Broncos through seven games with 22 rushing first downs.
Head coach Sean Payton noted after Nix was drafted (and plenty of times since) that one of the best qualities the rookie quarterback has is his ability to avoid sacks. We've seen that proven on the field as Nix has had three games among his first seven in the NFL in which he wasn't sacked a single time, including against the Saints on Thursday night.
But more than just being elusive in the pocket, Nix's athleticism has really blown a lot of people away. In fact, even Broncos head coach Sean Payton has been surprised by it.
Broncos HC Sean Payton has been surprised at how fast Bo Nix is
"I think that he’s a little bit faster than maybe we anticipated even coming out from a running standpoint. So it does give you some flexibility particularly on third down or in the red zone."Sean Payton (via Broncos PR)
The speed of Bo Nix has been a shock to many so far this season. Nix did not do a traditional pre-draft workout due to an injury he was dealing with, so we didn't see Nix run the 40-yard dash or anything like that. But this is a guy who was a five-star recruit coming out of high school as a "dual threat" quarterback. Running has always been part of Nix's game.
He just became so known for getting rid of the ball quickly at Oregon that his ability to make a huge difference as a runner got tremendously overshadowed. The Broncos have been seeing Nix unleash his running abilities this season and they have helped this offense tremendously. The Broncos have scored at least 26 points in three of their last five games. Nix's wheels have been on full display in each of those wins.
We'll see how much the Broncos continue to utilize the running abilities of Nix going forward as you don't want to put him unnecessarily in harm's way, but utilizing his legs could be a big part of extending drives and getting this offense more total plays overall this season.
And Nix's athleticism won't be likely be creeping up on anyone anytime soon.