The Denver Broncos finally have a franchise cornerstone on their hands, and it took him just one year to cement that status.
For years, the Broncos played a silly game with the QB position - they never correctly invested into the position, and the one time they did invest in a first-round QB, he became one of the biggest busts in NFL history. The era of Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Drew Lock, Joe Flacco, and all the others are over.
Sean Payton clearly wanted to set this team up for long-term success, so the 2024 NFL Draft became hyper-important following the release of Russell Wilson. And in just one season, second-year QB Bo Nix has truly become the Denver Broncos franchise cornerstone.
The Broncos finally have a franchise cornerstone at QB
No NFL team is going to sustain long-term success without a franchise QB, and nine times out of 10, a team has to use a high draft pick on one. The Broncos weren't the only team that made a major QB trade, either.
For teams like the Cleveland Browns and Washington Commanders with Deshaun Watson and Carson Wentz, it didn't work out, but we did see the Los Angeles Rams successfully pull that off with Matthew Stafford.
But all of a sudden, with Bo Nix, the Broncos have found some long-term success in the NFL. Nix is coming off of a stellar rookie season where he threw a whopping 29 touchdowns. He also added four rushing scores and one receiving score, carving out one of the best rookie QB season of all-time.
Nix is honestly approaching 'untradeable' territory as well. The arrow is pointing in the right direction for the Broncos and Bo Nix. They've proven a ton of people wrong and look to do even more of that in the 2025 NFL Season.