There is a certain kind of national media slight that lands differently in a town that has been paying attention all year. Broncos fans know what they have in Bo Nix.
They watched him lead Denver to a 14-3 season and an AFC Championship Game appearance. They watched him grow week by week, throw by throw, into a quarterback capable of carrying a contender.
So when NFL.com published its top 10 dark horse MVP candidates for the upcoming season and Nix was nowhere on the list, the reaction in Denver was equal parts confusion and irritation.
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On a Friday edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, hosts Josh Dover and Cecil Lammey were working through the list when they hit name No. 8, Kyler Murray. And the conversation effectively came to a halt.
Dover didn’t bother dressing up his reaction.
“I’m already offended that Bo Nix isn’t on the list and this dude is,” the hosts said. “Five-foot-five with an attitude, Kyler Murray is on this list as a dark horse MVP?”
The frustration is understandable. Murray is a talented player with flashes of brilliance in his career, but the sustained production and team-level success haven’t been there in the way Nix already has on his résumé heading into year three. To leave the quarterback of an AFC Championship Game team off a dark horse list, while including one whose career has been defined by inconsistency, feels like a misread of where each player actually stands.
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Lammey, for his part, refused to even accept the list as real.
“Wait, you’ve made this up,” he suggested. “This is not real.”
When Dover assured him it was, Lammey tried to find a different explanation.
“This has to be some sort of outlet that’s terrible right?” he asked, hoping the source was some fringe website that could be easily dismissed.
It wasn’t. Dover delivered the bad news.
“NFL.com is where I’m at right now,” he said.
Lammey’s response captured it all.
“WHAT? WHAT?”
It’s the kind of moment that crystallizes how much of a gap can exist between national perception and on-the-ground reality. Bo Nix has produced. He has won. He has elevated the team around him. And yet the league’s official media outlet apparently still doesn’t see him among the top ten quarterbacks capable of sneaking into the MVP conversation this season.
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The good news for Denver is that lists like these tend to age quickly. If Nix performs in 2026 the way the trajectory suggests he will, the rankings won’t have a choice but to catch up.
For now, though, Dover and Lammey are left scratching their heads. And so is the rest of Broncos Country.