If anyone would have predicted, back in the offseason, Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix to be among the favorites to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year as early December, they were either a fan of the team or a sheer psychic.
Let's be real. No one was picking Nix to be as good as he's been, and that's a tribute to the quarterback, first and foremost.
What Nix has done in just his first year has been nothing short of spectacular. As the sixth and final quarterback taken in the 2024 NFL Draft, he wasn't expected to outperform the other five ahead of him.
But, one could argue that's exactly what he has been able to do, right up there with the likes of Jayden Daniels in consideration for the league's best offensive rookie. Now, to be fair, J.J. McCarthy wasn't expected to start his rookie year and was ultimately injured, putting him out for the season, and Michael Penix Jr. has yet to start a game.
But, Nix has been just as good as any of the first round rookie quarterbacks, all things considered.
And, much of that can be attributed to head coach Sean Payton. The Broncos coach liked Nix a lot during the pre-draft process, and while some might have laughed at any semblance of a comparison between Nix and another former Payton quarterback, Drew Brees, the similarities are starting to become too real to ignore.
Former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel compared Bo Nix to Drew Brees
During the Monday Night Football broadcast in Week 13, Brees' former backup, Chase Daniel, took to social media to pay Nix the highest of compliments.
Daniel, who spent five seasons with Brees, is planting his flag on the Brees-Nix comparison.
I spent 5 years with Drew Brees and I can’t tell you how much I’ve seen Bo Nix morph into him this year.
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) December 3, 2024
Demeanor, mannerisms, & cadence sounds exactly like him.
The longer we get to know Nix and see who he is as both a person and quarterback, the more Daniel's compliment will continue to ring true. There are certainly a lot of similarities between the two players, all the way down to that "southern polite" demeanor. But at the same time, the two of them share the same ability to be a straight shooter with their head coach.
If we're talking about on-field performance and tendencies, we could even compare and contrast the numbers, and we don't even have to go all the way back to Brees' rookie campaign. In Brees' first season with the Saints, under Payton, he threw for 4,418 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 16 games.
While Nix probably won't surpass the yardage total (he's on pace for just over 3,600 yards), he is definitely within reach of those touchdown passes and coming in under the 11 picks.
Now, if we're being fair, Nix is, indeed, set to surpass Brees' numbefirst full season as a starter back in 2002 with the San Diego Chargers (3,284 yards, 17 touchdowns, 16 interceptions).
It's a little early to call Nix a future Hall of Fame quarterback or try to predict whether he'll even get close to any of Brees' records, but for the time being, fans can relish in the idea that the two of them are, indeed, similar players.
If Payton found himself another Brees, then he's far from done coaching in this league, and Nix is going to be a Bronco for a very, very long time.