Sean Payton may be Bo Nix’s worst enemy to start Broncos career

Just looking at the final score, you might think that Bo Nix had a strong debut for the Denver Broncos. After all, the team only lost by six points to a good Seahawks team on the road — there's no shame in that, right? Well, when you start to dig into the box score, it's much more difficult to take good feelings about the Broncos first-round pick in this year's draft.

Nix did score a late rushing touchdown to cut the lead but, outside of that, his day was highly problematic. Just looking at the numbers, he completed 26-of-42 passes but did so for only 138 yards and while throwing two interceptions.

Beyond just the box score, though, some of the strengths presented about Nix as a draft prospect weren't even there. His footwork was abandoned, his composure was shaken at times and it looked as if he was simply over his skis far more often than you'd want a 24-year-old with vast college experience to appear in his NFL regular season debut.

However, one Broncos insider while not absolving Nix is taking aim at Broncos head coach Sean Payton as the person who's not doing his rookie quarterback any favors.

Sean Payton is hurting Bo Nix's chances at success with Broncos

Benjamin Allbright of KOA Colorado appeared on The Hull Show for Colorado Sports Radio this week and was critical of how Payton handled Nix within the Broncos offense, namely asking the rookie to essentially be the focal point and carry the attack:

"You can't have Bo Nix throw the ball 40 times a game. That number needs to be a lot closer to 30, maybe 25 at this point. You got to be running."

A charitable read on that for Payton would be learning a lesson from Week 1 and dialing back the number of passing attempts for Nix moving forward given the shortcomings we saw from the Oregon product in his debut. On the flip side, we are talking about a head coach who vaguely compared Nix to Patrick Mahomes in terms of how he felt about the prospect, so the fact that he put all his eggs in the Bo Nix basket is informing how he's running the offense.

It's hard to disagree with Allbright's assessment of the offense, though. Nix has his strengths, to be sure, but those strengths are mitigated when it's all on him. Moreover, the Broncos have a strong running back group and a solid offensive line. Running the ball more frequently (and not having Nix be the team's leading rusher) will open up the field for the young quarterback and take pressure off him both physically and mentally.

We'll see if Payton adjusts after what we saw in Week 1. He most definitely should but, for a coach with his track record in the NFL and a track record of stubbornness as well, it might not be an immediate change that transpires, if it does at all.