Broncos training camp is nearly here and the storylines heading into the first practices are as loaded as they have been in years.
Jaylen Waddle is on the roster. Davis Webb is calling the plays. J.K. Dobbins is back in the backfield. Courtland Sutton just cracked the NFL’s top-100. The defense returns nearly every meaningful contributor from a unit that carried the franchise to the AFC Championship Game.
There is no shortage of things to watch.
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But according to one of the most respected voices covering the team, one storyline sits well above every other. And it doesn’t have anything to do with the new pieces.
On a recent edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, fill-in hosts Will Petersen and James Merilatt welcomed 9News Broncos insider Mike Klis onto the show to identify what he’ll be watching most closely as camp gets underway.
Merilatt asked the question directly.
“What’s at the top of your list for ‘This is the No. 1 storyline I’m looking at heading into training camp?'” Merilatt asked.
Klis didn’t hesitate.
“It’s not even close for No. 1. It’s Bo Nix and how he’s moving around following those two ankle surgeries,” Klis said.
The addition of Waddle matters. The promotion of Webb matters. The health of Dobbins matters. But every one of those storylines is downstream of the health and mobility of the franchise quarterback.
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Nix broke his ankle on one of the final plays of the AFC Divisional Round loss to the Buffalo Bills. He underwent two surgeries in the offseason. And even though he was back at minicamp looking healthy in the controlled setting of non-contact drills, the real evaluation begins now, when the pace picks up, when the reps stack up and when the physical demands of a full training camp start to reveal whether the ankle is truly back to where it needs to be.
Klis also touched on just how much Nix’s teammates and coaches recognize what he means to the operation.
“The writers, the media, the local media hasn’t voted him MVP of the team the last two years. I think a few votes would have changed after that AFC Championship Game,” Klis said.
Nix has arguably been the most valuable player on the Broncos for both of his professional seasons, and the perception of his importance has grown steadily as his production has stacked up. The moment he went down against Buffalo, the entire tenor of the postseason for Denver changed.
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That is not a coincidence. That is a franchise quarterback being exactly what a franchise quarterback is supposed to be.
Klis then closed with the framing that puts every other storyline in its proper place.
“Everyone saw just how much Bo Nix means to this team. Everything about this team. They brought all these guys back, they added Jaylen Waddle. Nothing matters if Bo Nix isn’t fully recovered, and playing the way Bo does. Which is, he uses his legs and his feet quite a bit,” Klis said.
That’s the sentence that should hang over the entire training camp. Nix’s game is built on movement. The way he escapes pressure, extends plays, scrambles for first downs and creates opportunities off structure is a defining feature of his identity as a quarterback.
If the ankle limits any of those traits, everything the Broncos have built around him becomes less dangerous by degrees. If the ankle holds up and Nix looks like himself, the offense the front office has assembled has a legitimate chance to be one of the best in football.
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The other storylines are real. But Klis is right. This is the one that matters most.