Boring may not have been the word Sean Payton was looking for when trying to describe how good Bo Nix's practices were at his first rookie minicamp, but it should be viewed as some of the best possible Denver Broncos news to come along in the eight years since the team won Super Bowl 50.
Payton was asked what makes a good practice for a quarterback, and he carefully searched for the right way to describe what makes what he said was a 'pretty good practice' by Nix:
"It’s almost like watching a good golfer. Sometimes when you watch his game over two years, there’s a patience to how he plays. The ball comes out, and—I don’t want to use the term ‘boring,’ that’s not the right term, but [he makes] pretty good decisions."Sean Payton (via Broncos PR)
As Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss on Pro Football Talk, it's clear that Payton was simply trying to hide his excitement a bit over the way he saw Nix practice, even in just his first weekend with the team (on the field, at least).
Boring is frankly what Sean Payton wants his quarterback to be running this offense. Boring is efficient. Boring is executing the plays he's asked to execute. Boring is going to the right place with the football.
Boring is predictable, and predictable for Sean Payton is absolute gold.
As the saying goes, you can't go broke taking a profit, and Bo Nix is the foremost expert of doing that in this rookie class. His maturity on the field is evident, and it's carrying over into his first weekend of NFL practices. The Broncos will get together on May 21 for their first full-team OTAs (voluntary), and Nix will get the first chance to show his stuff not only going against veterans but hopefully he will get some reps playing with some of the better ones as well.
We don't know at this point whether or not Nix will be out there in Week 1 when the Broncos travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks, but an offseason full of "boring" practices will undoubtedly lead him there.
Boring is exactly what the Denver Broncos need at the QB position. The unpredictability and erratic play this team has experienced in the last eight years has us all longing for 'boring' in Broncos Country. A quarterback who is consistently willing to take what the defense gives him is going to lead you to a lot of wins.
It's still very early in the offseason. There's a long way to go. But this comment by Sean Payton is one of the clearest indicators that the Broncos feel they got it right by taking Nix at #12 overall:
"No, it’s been exactly what we saw (at Nix's pre-draft workout with the team). The only thing that I can think about that I was a little bit surprised is when we went to work him out privately and stood around him, he was bigger than I expected. But nothing in the last two days. He’s doing well."Sean Payton
If you'll recall, Payton gushed after the 2024 NFL Draft about how great Nix's pre-draft workout was. He stated that he got into his car after that workout and said, you kidding me? The sentiment after the workout was, "you kidding me?", and what Payton saw over the weekend from Nix was "exactly what we saw" at the workout.
Maybe "boring" wasn't the word Sean Payton was looking for, but it's some of the best news Denver Broncos fans have gotten in a long time.