A Vastly Improved Bo Nix Fueling High Hopes in Denver

As the Denver Broncos aim for greater heights this season, they look to Bo Nix to take them there. Throughout the offseason, Nix has been praised by coaches and teammates for his progress in Year 2, raising expectations even higher. 

Looking back at last year, there were multiple areas in which Nix needed to show growth and development. Issues arose from operating a true drop-back passing game, his placement wasn’t great, and the intermediate passes weren't always accurate and often disastrous for the Broncos. 

While we're only a few days into Broncos training camp, Nix has already shown improvements in almost all of those areas. He can grow and develop, but now it's about putting it all together and continuing to drive forward. 

The only thing Nix hasn’t shown much of, so far, is the actual drop-back passing game, but that isn’t necessarily his fault. Throughout camp practices, he's been forced out of the pocket often due to pressure from the defense, making it harder to work on the drop-back aspect of his game. 

However, there's still some good news. When Nix has had those drop-pack opportunities, he has done well. They've been somewhat few and far between, so the sample size is small, but each step is still a step when it comes to development. 

The good news is that Nix's ball placement looks vastly improved compared to last year. He has been getting praised for consistently putting the ball in the right spot throughout the practices, giving the Broncos' first-team unit on defense little opportunity to make plays on the ball. 

Nix started to show signs of improvement late last year, though it was still inconsistent. This year, he seems to have found consistency. It's still early, and it's good to see Nix taking the steps in practice, but you want to see it carry over into preseason games.

That brings us to the intermediate game, where Nix struggled mightily last year, leading  Sean Payton to almost entirely abandon that part of the field. So far, in camp, Nix has had great success in that sector of the field. 

Over the first few days of practice, Nix has made multiple big-time throws to the intermediate area of the field for big plays, including what would’ve been a long touchdown. Combined with his ball placement improvements, the Broncos may have a complete passing game this year. 

What led to the concern wasn’t only accuracy, but also velocity on those throws, often leading to what seemed to be miscues or miscalculations in timing. However, Nix's velocity appears to have improved in camp, suggesting that it isn’t the issue it was. 

Expectations are high for the Broncos, and it largely falls on Nix's shoulders. This team will only go as far as he will carry it.

Recommended Articles

While there's still a lot of time left in the process, Nix is showing more than encouraging early signs of improvement, and now needs to build on it. Big things are expected this year, and rightfully so.