The Denver Broncos are 8-2 and atop the AFC West past the midway point of the season, but the narrative surrounding Sean Payton’s squad is centered on the performance of his quarterback, Bo Nix.
After a lousy showing in a 10-7 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday Night Football a week ago, the national attention on the Broncos shifted from praising the outstanding defense to questioning the second-year signal caller. Nix finished the contest with 150 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions while completing just 16 of his 28 passes. It was the second straight week in which his completion percentage was south of 60%, and the sixth game in which he led the Broncos offense to 21 or fewer points.
There are some issues that are clear to everyone watching the tape. He seems to get sped up in the pocket at times, and instead of standing tall and waiting an extra half-second to deliver a ball over the middle or wait for a route to develop, he’s bailing out to the right and scrambling, or he’s not setting his feet and rushing the throw — a recipe that usually leads to an incompletion.
BO NIX’S COMPLETION PERCENTAGE IS AMONG THE WORST, BUT HE HASN’T TAKEN MANY SACKS
His completion percentage (60.9%) ranks 35th in the NFL, a ranking that only jumps to 31st by removing quarterbacks who haven’t played in four games. Yet, he’s attempted the second-most passes in the NFL (350), sitting only behind Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers (358). That’s not a formula that can win a Super Bowl, and solving the issues comes with fixing his mental clock in the pocket.
Payton detailed the fine line between having too fast of an internal clock and having one that’s too slow that results in taking sacks.
“I think one of his great strength is not taking sacks, and so the clock in his head is relative to that sense of urgency. I think there is a fine line of, number one, the depth of route, is this a longer developing play, a seven-step drop, a five-step drop, a three-step drop, and what should be the appropriate time. But I think that’s a much, much easier problem to correct than the latter, which is taking the sacks, and historically speaking, it’s proven to be much more difficult to fix,” Payton said in a conference call Monday morning.
Nix has only been sacked 10 times this season, tied with Seattle’s Sam Arnold as the fewest among quarterbacks who have played in all of or a majority of their team’s games this year. While that number is pretty, it’s causing Nix to miss on some longer developing plays down the field.
Looks like Bo Nix felt backside pressure here in Q2 + wanted to escape, checked down to RJ Harvey for 2. But man, if he steps up, Courtland Sutton (14, top of screen) is wide open intermediate, sitting in Raiders' zone. pic.twitter.com/G223Jogitl
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) November 7, 2025
It’s clear that on this particular play from last week’s game, Sutton is wide open, but Nix wasn’t patient enough to let his route develop, and decided to bail out to the right side and hit his checkdown underneath. It’s not like Nix isn’t practicing footwork, mechanics and basic QB drills during the week, because Payton emphasized that Broncos QBs coach Davis Webb does so with all the guys in the room.
“There’s times where, during portions of practice, they’ll work specifically on left off of three-step, left off of five, right off of three, right off of five. Route specific,” Payton said.
It’s clear that they practice the simple footwork aspects of quarterbacking throughout the week, even if it looks like that practice goes out the window on game days. Why is that? Is it a confidence thing? Does Nix not have trust in his offensive line, a unit that has been great this year? Does he feel more comfortable throwing on the run? Whatever it is, it’s an issue that needs to be fixed for the Broncos’ offense to find its stride in the back half of the season.