Bomb Drop on Bo Nix: ESPN’s Bomani Jones Eviscerates Broncos' Rookie QB—'Not a Believer!'

There are still throngs of Bo Nix critics hanging on to their pre-draft takes and skepticism. Before the Denver Broncos drafted Nix at No. 12 overall, the predominant tropes were that he was a "system quarterback" at Oregon with a subpar arm and that he'd quickly be exposed in the NFL.

Those critics assured their readers, listeners, and viewers that Nix was a Day-2 draft pick at best. After the Broncos took him in the top half of the first round, the same folks decried the selection, castigating Sean Payton for such a desperate "reach."

Meanwhile, Payton knew what he saw in Nix and laughed all the way to the bank. Nix would go on to beat out two veterans in the Broncos' open quarterback competition, becoming the first opening-day rookie starter in team history since John Elway in 1983. What a scrub.

After an up-and-down start to the season, Nix hit his stride in October and would finish the season with 3,775 passing yards and 29 touchdowns, which led all rookie quarterbacks. Remember, he was the sixth quarterback drafted in the first round.

That individual production translated to team success, as the Broncos dug themselves out of an 0-2 start to win 10 games and snap their previous eight-year playoff drought. Payton again laughed with glee, and even on Wednesday following training camp practice, he rubbed salt in the wounds of Nix's hanging-on-for-dear-life critics.

One such critic is ESPN's Bomani Jones. Despite all that Nix achieved as a rookie and how it translated to the standings for the Broncos, he's still not a believer, as he revealed during an appearance on the Mina Kimes Show on Monday.

“I am not a Bo Nix guy, I will not be a Bo Nix guy for a while. I think that what I have in common with the other not-Bo Nix guys is how much college football you watch," Jones told Kimes. "And so I saw your guy [Benjamin] Solak make this point: if you were not high on Bo Nix going into the draft and there wasn’t really that much in the season that should change your mind — it’s a lot of passes behind the line of scrimmage, a lot of use the scheme to make it easy for you. That catches up to you. No matter how good you think Sean Payton is, you can only scheme your way so far if that’s the scheme you’ve got to do to make it work with your quarterback.”

An Ax to Grind

It seems that guys like Jones and Solak missed the part about Denver having a totally anemic running game. The Broncos finished 16th in rushing, but when you remove Nix's 430 (!) rushing yards, we're talking about a bottom-third ground attack. It was woeful.

Javonte Williams continued his three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust trend, running into the backs of his blockers. Jaleel McLaughlin offered a modicum of playmaking ability at times, but he simply couldn't produce it consistently, while Audric Estime was little more than a passable power back.

The Broncos lacked consistency and explosion on the ground, which would have confounded and buried lesser quarterbacks, honestly. It didn't sink Nix, though, and Payton deserves a lot of credit for that, especially in how he used the short passing game as a facsimile of a ground attack.

Jones referenced Solak's take on Nix. Solak recently published a piece on the 2024 first-round quarterbacks as they enter Year 2. Here's how he summed up Nix's contributions after Year 1:

"Nix is pretty much as billed coming out of college. He's more than capable of running an offense, but it's still uncertain if he can really elevate one. I like the way the Broncos are bringing him along, though," Solak wrote. "You could see his confidence growing over time. As they continue to improve their pass-catching corps, they can give him more opportunities to work downfield. The developmental arc is there, as long as Payton can stay ahead of defenses long enough to keep pressure off Nix's shoulders."

It's still "uncertain" if Nix can "really elevate" an offense? The Broncos finished as a top-10 scoring offense with a rookie quarterback. Nobody saw that coming.

Solak cherry-picked a few metrics to try to explain how the last quarterback drafted out-produced all the guys ahead of him. Look, Jayden Daniels was an absolute stud and a revelation for the Washington Commanders, and he very much deserved the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, but his supporting cast, especially at the skill positions, was a step or two above Nix's initial arsenal.

Nix had the offensive line in comparison to Daniels, but let's not blow the Broncos' starting five out of proportion. The O-line turned in an excellent 2024 campaign, although there's only so much the big guys could do with a running back depth chart so bereft of vision and explosiveness.

The Broncos corrected that by drafting RJ Harvey in the second round, the second-most-explosive FBS running back last year behind only Ashton Jeanty. Denver then signed J.K. Dobbins, whose career rushing average is ranks second among all running backs since the year he was drafted (2020).

Only two NFL quarterbacks were sacked fewer times last year than Nix. The Broncos' O-line deserves praise for that feat — but so does Nix, whom Solak characterized as "still prone to breaking out of clean pockets to try to disrupt defensive geometry," instead of, you know, hanging in there in the pocket and slugging it out like any self-respecting NFL quarterback would.

We're talking about a rookie, after all, not a seasoned veteran. Most of Solak's commentary on Nix had an acerbic undertone, and the best compliment he could really muster was that he "likes" the way the Broncos are "bringing him along." Underhanded to say the least.

The Takeaway

Analysts like Jones and Solak will never be pleased with Nix. And it's not for anything Nix lacks. Although we can't read anyone's mind, there are a few reasons Nix's critics remain so dug in on their relative shade of the Broncos' quarterback.

Most of the time, though, it comes down to this: they don't want to be proven wrong or to admit a misguided opinion. They had an outspoken, hot take that Nix wasn't a first-round quarterback, so they have to pick apart his accomplishments to justify their position, resisting giving credit where it's due every step of the way.

Here's what then typically happens: after a few years have passed by and their takes have been exposed as freezing-cold, they magically turn around and pretend like they were believers and supporters all along, and hop on the bandwagon. As if all the shade they hurled never happened.

Never mind that Nix was playing with a skill-position group that ESPN ranked as the 30th-best in the league at this time last year. We can't credit him for raising those ships. No, no, no.

Nix could barely muster a throw beyond the line of scrimmage, after all. He was a horizontal passer with a weak arm and simply a sock puppet of Payton's. It goes on and on.

At the end of the day, it's all fuel for the fire in Denver. We know that Payton reads the internet. Even with training camp in full swing, he'll likely see such takes as he monitors his X feed.

Suffice it to say, Nix will be sufficiently motivated by what material Payton curates for his locker-room bulletin board. Perhaps by this time next year, Jones will have been cured of his antipathy and will have become a "Bo Nix guy."