Bo Nix's rough rookie debut highlighted bigger problem for Broncos

The Denver Broncos lost in the regular season debut of rookie quarterback Bo Nix, who basically struggled with all of the things we didn't see him struggle with during the preseason. Obviously, the regular season is a different animal entirely, and nobody expected Nix to come out slinging with a 158.3 (perfect) quarterback rating or anything like that.

And Nix did struggle against the Seattle Seahawks. He completed 26-of-42 passes for 138 yards and two interceptions, a brutal average of just 3.3 yards per attempt. And the Broncos did some of that by design, but the Seahawks did a good job of limiting Nix's ability to push the ball downfield by selling out to stop the run and keeping pressure on the Denver offensive line.

Even when Nix had time to throw, he was making rough throws downfield and poor decisions at times. The two interceptions he threw were ill-advised, to say the least, and Nix could have easily thrown an interception or two more on the afternoon.

Rookie growing pains are rough, but there is a bigger issue looming for the Denver Broncos that reared its ugly head in this game.

The Broncos may have a wide receiver problem.

Although fans are going to be furious after this game about the Broncos' decision to cut Tim Patrick before the start of the season, it's unclear how much of a difference Patrick would make in the long run as we saw all of Lil'Jordan Humphrey, Courtland Sutton, and Josh Reynolds drop passes in this game for the Broncos.

We also didn't see much of Marvin Mims offensively at all, which is really the biggest problem with this game overall. The Broncos targeted Mims one time and he had zero catches for zero yards. In a game where the offense struggled to get anything going at all in the way of yards after the catch, a player like Mims who has actual speed and after the catch abilities could have potentially helped.

Or maybe he stinks, and that's why the Broncos have him riding the pine when the offense is out there on the field. Either way, Broncos Country has reason to be concerned here.

The Broncos might have the weakest group of wide receivers in the league after the showing they put on against the Seattle Seahawks. Yes, it's just one game, but this is a group which featured undrafted rookie Devaughn Vele in Week 1. Vele had a whopping eight targets in his NFL debut.

Josh Reynolds, a free agent acquisition from the Detroit Lions, led the Broncos with 45 yards receiving on five receptions. Courtland Sutton was targeted 12 times and had just four receptions.

Although Nix's debut was rough from his own perspective in a lot of ways, what's more concerning right now is who he's throwing the ball to. Even when Nix made some throws in this game, his guys let him down on multiple occasions. That can't be tolerated going forward and Sean Payton is going to have to figure out ways to get Marvin Mims involved in the offense.