Payton: Broncos have found their QB with Nix

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As the Denver Broncos begin to sift through all that was the 2024 season, they have already come away with at least one conclusion: They found their quarterback of the present and future in Bo Nix.

The Broncos ended an eight-year playoff drought with a 10-7 finish but saw how much work is left to be done in a 31-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills this past Sunday in an AFC wild-card game. But all involved believe, after they saw Nix navigate his rookie season, that the Broncos made the right call when they made Nix the 12th pick of last April’s draft and put him behind center from the first snap of the season.

“I know this, he’s very conscientious. … I think it’s all in front of him,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said Wednesday. “I’ve said this before, I think we’ve found that player that can lead us and be what we need relative to having the success that we’re used to having. I think we found him.”

Nix had the usual bumps on the learning curve for a rookie quarterback, but his 29 touchdown passes was one of the best tallies ever for a rookie passer — second only to Justin Herbert’s 31 in 2020. He was also one of five rookies in NFL history to throw for at least 3,500 yards and at least 25 touchdowns in his first season.

And the 24-year-old has already made his presence felt for the offseason in the first few days after the team’s playoff loss.

“I had a good visit with him [Tuesday],” Payton said. “… [There] are things he’s going to look at and grow from and build on, whether it’s third-down snaps or pressure snaps, but I’m real encouraged; I’m glad that he’s with us and it worked out the way it did. [And] I know he’s going to here quite a bit.”

“He never flinched; we’d be behind in games, we always came back, we didn’t always win them, but you’re always looking for that ‘it’ factor,” Broncos general manager George Paton said Wednesday. “… He’s been here, you’re like ‘Bo, you’ve got to take a break,’ [but] he’s here today, he was here yesterday.”

The Broncos’ top decision-makers, including owner/CEO Greg Penner, also made it clear the Kansas City Chiefs, who were the AFC’s top seed and have won the AFC West title each of the past nine years, as well as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, will influence how the Broncos approach the offseason.

When asked Wednesday whether the quest to become a bigger factor in the AFC postseason race starts in the division with Mahomes and the Chiefs, Penner said “absolutely.”

“Yeah, we could have very easily been 2-0 against the Chiefs this year, and our absolute goal next year is to win our division,” Penner said.

The Broncos faced, and lost to, three of the AFC’s remaining four teams — 41-10 to the Baltimore Ravens, 16-14 to the Chiefs and Sunday’s loss to the Bills. Payton was asked Wednesday whether he believed there was still a gap between the Broncos and those teams.

“I’m telling you what, I didn’t see a gap last weekend until the second half [the Broncos trailed the Bills 13-7 late in the third quarter], and then you see a gap because you’re losing,” Payton said. “But I felt real confident we could go in there and win. Obviously, we didn’t play well enough, but those lines are much finer than we think.

“It’s a player, it’s two players, it’s line of scrimmage,” Payton added “… And it starts with the division, there’s a lot of confidence in this team if we could get past [Buffalo in the wild card], the next one we had to play [in Kansas City] we felt really good about. Obviously, we’re still not there yet, but we’re a lot closer than we were at this time a year ago — that was misery, sorrow, drudgery — gimme some other adjectives — that was brutal, let’s say that.”