The Denver Broncos kicked off mandatory minicamp on Tuesday and there was really only one storyline that matters to the fan base right now. Everyone wanted to see Bo Nix. And more specifically, everyone wanted to know what Bo Nix was going to look like.
The quarterback’s season ended on a painful note last year with a late-game injury in the AFC Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills that knocked him out of his first AFC Championship Game appearance before he ever got the chance to take a snap in it. The recovery process has been a months-long storyline and minicamp marks the first time the city gets to see him back in football mode.
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On a Tuesday edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Mike Evans tried to set the expectation level before anyone reads too much into what they see on a practice field in June.
“Bo’s gonna look fine. I mean if you’re just talking about him moving around and running and doing some cuts and everything,” Evans said.
Practices are not designed to expose lingering injuries. They’re designed to install offense, build chemistry and get bodies moving in a controlled environment. A quarterback going through scripted drills and walk-throughs isn’t being asked to bail out of collapsing pockets or extend plays under genuine duress.
Evans identified the misplaced expectation he sees brewing among some fans.
“I think some people are expecting to see him laboring out there, limping and looking like he’s in distress,” he said.
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That is not what happened. Nix has been working through his recovery for months and the player who stepped onto the field at minicamp was the product of that rehab process, a quarterback ready to move and throw without visible compromise.
“I have no worries about him passing the eye test here through this minicamp and on into training camp,” Evans said.
The actual evaluation, however, has to wait. The real questions about Nix’s recovery won’t be answered in June or July. They will be answered in September and beyond, when the speed of the game returns and the physical toll of an NFL season begins to accumulate.
Evans laid out where the genuine test lives.
“I think it’s just a matter of once you get into the stress of the regular season, week in week out, and he’s playing his game, and he’s moving around, and he’s probably taking off and scrambling. That’s when it comes back to the whole idea of ‘What is the stability of his ankle?'” he said.
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The stability of Nix’s ankle isn’t something you can evaluate in a non-contact practice setting. It will reveal itself the first time he gets hit, the first time he plants and rolls out of the pocket under pressure, the first time he takes off on a scramble and lands awkwardly. Those moments are coming. They are just not coming yet.
For now, Broncos Country can enjoy what minicamp offers. The simple, encouraging sight of their franchise quarterback back on the field. The bigger answers will arrive in their own time.