Bo Nix Had An Inspiring 2026 Season

The most impressive aspect of Nix’s season is his ability to avoid the sophomore slump. Quarterbacks tend to have a drop-off in the second year of play due to defense getting a season’s worth of film on them. A few examples are CJ Stroud, Dak Prescott, and Baker Mayfield.

The season did not start pretty, though, for Nix. In the opening week, he had three turnovers against the lowly Tennessee Titans. The trend continued for the first four games.

Nix wasn’t awful, but it was quite a bit of a drop-off from his rookie season, where he had 33 total touchdowns and nearly 4,000 total yards. In the first four games of the 2025 season, he had seven touchdowns and four interceptions, with two games less than 200 yards. The team was 2-2, losing back-to-back in heartbreaking fashion.

With a trip to Philadelphia, the season was teetering a little bit. Sean Payton called his squad a Super Bowl team, and to start 2-3 would be less than ideal. Instead, the Denver Broncos pulled off the upset in large part due to Nix’s performance in the clutch. In the five games after the quarter pole, he had 10 touchdowns to just two interceptions.

Denver won five straight games and sat pretty at 7-2 and first place in the AFC West. Then Nix had a stinker against the 2-8 Las Vegas Raiders, where he threw for just 151 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The skepticism was at an all-time high, and people such as Nick Wright called him the weak link of the team.

This was, to me, when he turned his season around. Statistically, the numbers were not eye-popping as he finished the year with seven touchdowns and three interceptions in the final seven games. The eye test is what showed his growth.

Nix started doing the boring stuff better and beat the Kansas City Chiefs, when they were still contenders, and the Green Bay Packers. In that game against Green Bay, he had 302 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. His best game as a pro up till that point.

Nix was somewhat the driving force since the bye week. The defense was a bit sluggish to close out the season, but for the Broncos to close out their year 6-1 in the final seven is a testament to him.

The former Oregon Duck avoiding disaster in year two is not what made the year special.

Mr. Fourth Quarter

There was an insane stat that I saw on the Pro Football Focus Instagram page. Nix, when trailing, had 2112 yards with 21 touchdowns with two interceptions, and a passer rating of 102.4. Throw in an adjusted completion percentage of 74.4% for good measure.

The numbers reflected well in the first playoff game of the season as well. Nix had two touchdowns and 120 yards with a passer rating of 120.0 and 81.8% adjusted completion percentage against the Buffalo Bills. His fourth-quarter play has been nothing short of spectacular.

There are so many moments to choose from as a favorite. Was it leading the Broncos to a win against the defending champs down 17-3 early in the fourth quarter? Was it the game against the New York Giants when he had two passing and two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone to win the game 33-32 after being down 26-8?

Was it the game against the Chiefs when he outplayed Patrick Mahomes in the clutch? There are so many to choose from. Despite his fourth-quarter heroics, there were more skeptics than believers.

Denver, as a one seed, opened up as 1.5-point underdogs against the Bills. That later shifted to 1.5 the other way when Buffalo’s injury report came out. Being a 1.5-point favorite, at home, is still a sign of disrespect, as most home teams get three points.

Everyone loved the defense and the coach. That should tell you how much people doubted Nix, and once again, he proved everyone wrong in typical fashion. Down 23-27 against Josh Allen and the Bills, with four minutes to go. He engineers a drive capped off with a beautiful deep throw to Marvin Mims for the go-ahead score.

The moment Buffalo failed to score a touchdown up one was when they really lost this game. Don’t ever leave the door open for Nix because he’s going to run through it.

End Of Bo Nix Rant

Looking back on it, throwing a deep pass on a broken ankle is admirable. The pass interference that was drawn by Mims to ice the game was the play after Nix injured his ankle.

This just shows how cruel sports can be. Championship aspirations can be gone in an instant due to a freak accident. I hope Nix is ready by week one next season and doesn’t miss a beat.

Oh, don’t worry, New England, championship aspirations didn’t end for this particular team; that was a general statement.