Ever since being drafted, Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix has been heavily criticized. He was the sixth and last QB taken in the 2024 NFL Draft, and much of the NFL world laughed at the Broncos for taking Nix.
Despite proving them wrong in 2024, the haters kept it up during the 2025 season, and even after yet another successful season this past year, there are still some devoted doubters of Nix approaching year three.
It's honestly quite weird, as Nix checks all the boxes and has done nothing but prove people wrong thus far, so you'd think much of the criticism he gets would subside, but that isn't the case. On Thursday, head coach Sean Payton had a pretty legendary response to recent criticism of Nix, which was also off-base to begin with.
Denver Broncos' HC Sean Payton comes to Bo Nix's defense on X/Twitter
Former NFL player Geoff Schwartz, during an appearance on First Things First on FOX Sports, incorrectly stated that Nix doesn't push the ball down the field that often. What's funny is that the clip that got posted got "Community Noted" by X/Twitter, and that only happens when something obviously false hits the timeline. Not only dif that happen, but Payton himself got involved on the fun and called out Schwartz big-time:
Always easy to tell who works at it and who doesn't.
— Sean Payton (@SeanPayton) August 27, 2026
I mean, this is ruthless stuff from Payton, but he's 100 percent right in this instance. Schwartz may say a lot of correct things, but it's clear that he didn't do his homework on Nix before coming on the show to talk about him. What's also cool is that Payton is not only active-ish on X, but he clearly sees what people on social media say and has never been someone who hasn't spoken his mind.
At this point, it's pretty exhausting, as much of the criticism of Nix is simply untrue, as Nix has thrown the most deep touchdown passes of any QB since entering the NFL, which is a pretty direct stat that totally negates what Schwartz said here.
Not only does Nix throw it deep quite often, but he's also had to deal with the most drops by his pass-catchers of any QB since entering the league. Nix's pass-catchers have registered 75 drops in 34 regular season games, which is 15 more than the next closest QB.
Nix has exceeded expectations thus far, is far from a 'check down merchant' like some may call him, and is very clearly a franchise QB continuing to head in the right direction.
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