The Denver Broncos are at an inflection point. The ahead-of-schedule rebuild is arriving a day early from Amazon. There’s no fall off from Bo Nix in Year 2, with approximately $35 million of Russell Wilson’s dead cap hit accounted for in the Broncos’ 2025 cap space. Because of their 7-2 record, it’s time to put the offense on Nix’s back and see if he is the franchise quarterback before 2026.
Broncos Go As Far as Bo Nix
ESPN’s Eric Moody and NFL Nation reporters released a long-form article on Thursday. In it are midseason reports from every team. For each team, there is a first-half storyline, a quarterback stat to know, and a second-half storyline. One stat to know about the Broncos’ quarterback is an alarming one regarding Nix.
“Perhaps it is because the Broncos have trailed into the fourth quarter in almost half of their games, QB Bo Nix is suddenly one of the league’s high-volume throwers — he’s third in attempts and one of four quarterbacks with over 300 attempts in the first nine weeks,” Â Jeff Legwold wrote.
Legwold continued, “And he can likely expect defenses to turn up the heat a bit the rest of the way — he’s completing 48% of his passes against pressure looks and his default is often to throw deep under duress given he is averaging 9.0 air yards under pressure. So, when defenses put him under pressure, he’s often trying to throw over all of it with limited success.”
Nix’s pressured completion percentage varies among sites, but the point remains the same. Nix must consistently master throwing under duress. The Broncos started to air the ball out after Week 3. Nix totaled 42 pass attempts in Week 4 in a game the Broncos won 28-3. Then, because of the game script, Nix has totaled 37-plus pass attempts in three of his past five.
Week 9 was a different story, though. Nix had 17 pass attempts by halftime, down 12-7 against the Houston Texans. And down eight in most of the fourth quarter, Nix’s attempts still got to 37. For reference, it was a one-possession game so that the Broncos could’ve gone with their bread and butter: the run game. J.K. Dobbins is fifth in the league in rushing yards per game (77.2).
So, it looks like the Broncos have already started to put the offense on Nix’s back in Week 9, then. Beginning in Week 10, Nix must accept the task. Six weeks after an island game on “Monday Night Football,” Nix returns to an island game on “Thursday Night Football.” The last such occurrence resulted in 42 pass attempts while playing from ahead for most of the game.
Nix, No. 15 in PFSN’s QB Impact Score, must do this consistently, not letting the game script determine his pass volume.
