Bo Nix turned a lot of heads after a surprisingly successful rookie season, and thus added a whole heap of expectations for his follow-up campaign in 2025. Yet, three games in, he doesn’t look like the answer Sean Payton thought he had after last year. He looks like a big question mark for a team that has a golden chance to contend in a topsy-turvy AFC West.
After all, the Kansas City Chiefs have left the door wide open for the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos to steal their spot. If there was any year the Broncos needed to capitalize on that, it’s 2025. Yet Nix hasn’t played like a quarterback worthy of a division title. Maybe Payton is to blame for Nix’s shortcomings. This was the year Payton thought Nix had it figured out and would continue taking steps forward.
Nix hasn’t looked great in the first three games, and the Broncos are 1-2. While they added a couple of pieces over the offseason, this team isn’t all that different from last year, yet they're not looking like a team worthy of a playoff spot right now. It’s still early and things can change, but for now, it seems Payton bit off more than he could chew when it comes to evaluating Nix.
Bo Nix is setting Denver up for a Cleveland-sized disappointment
The Broncos had one of the best defenses in football last year, and they still look as good as any unit in the NFL this season. But despite that, their offense is holding them back. Remind you of another team in the NFL? The Cleveland Browns, maybe? Like Denver, Cleveland was team with a championship-caliber defense being held back by their incompetent offense. Nix can’t afford to waste this defense by not improving his play.
It would be different if he didn’t play the way he did last year while leading Denver to the playoffs for the first time since it won the Super Bowl back in 2015. It would also be different if Payton didn’t say that the Broncos had found their quarterback of the future after his surprising rookie season. Most rookie quarterbacks regress in year two because teams adjust to their tendencies. The good ones battle through it and continue to improve, while the mediocre ones struggle to break through.
Nix is struggling to break through three games into his second season. That’s not to say he won’t figure it out at some point this year, but the belief the Broncos had in him implies it shouldn’t be taking this long for him to figure it out. I’m not saying the Broncos are the Cleveland Browns by any means, but if Nix doesn’t start to improve soon, Denver will start to look eerily similar.
The Browns held the Green Bay Packers to 10 points and scored 13 unanswered in the fourth quarter to get their first win of the season on Sunday. Their defense did all that work. Denver’s defense has been doing all the work this year and they’re waiting for Nix to catch up. The window is closing on him to turn his play around.
What will it take for Bo Nix to return to his rookie form?
The big thing for Nix is he needs to go back to what made him stand out as a rookie. He kept things moving last year, and that was largely due to him not forcing anything. He wasn't trying to create plays; he just let the play develop the best way he saw fit. It feels like this year, he’s trying to force that same magic that came naturally a year ago.
It falls on Payton to simplify things for Nix so that maybe he can regain the confidence he had a year ago. And it also falls on Payton to work with Nix to calm him down in the middle of games. The Broncos need Nix to improve his play, and this year there’s even more pressure on him to figure it out. You can blame Payton for raising expectations beyond what he probably deserved, but either way, it’s up to Nix to play better.