Broncos Fans Outraged as Bo Nix Snubbed Again in National Rankings

This deep into the offseason, we pass the time by analyzing what the national aggregators and list-makers are saying about the Denver Broncos. Often, these lists and rankings come with a distinct air of Broncos disrespect.

Hot on the heels of ranking Broncos quarterback Bo Nix as the 19th-best player at his position, behind the likes of Geno Smith, Kyler Murray, Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Stroud, and Tua Tagovailoa, Pro Football Focus has unveiled the top three players for each team in the NFL. The site's credibility now seriously in question, PFF's Trevor Sikkema laid out who he says are the Broncos' top three:

• CB Patrick Surtain II
• OG Quinn Meinerz
• WR Courtland Sutton

"Surtain earned PFF’s Best Coverage Defender Award in 2024 with an 87.4 coverage grade while allowing just 0.53 yards per coverage snap. Meinerz posted a 0.51 WAR in 2024, third-best among all guards, on the strength of an 87.5 run-blocking grade. Sutton followed with a 0.44 WAR and a 77.0 receiving grade, placing him among the top 20 wideouts league-wide," Sikkema wrote.

This isn't based on some internal grading system. Per the article, it's centered around identifying "the top three players who matter most for each team."

There's no doubting the importance of each of the three Broncos Sikkema laid out. But to omit Nix from this list of the players who "matter most" to the Broncos is laughable.

This omission further illustrates PFF's obvious Nix bias. Broncos Country has long decried the Broncos bias in the national press, especially PFF, but the shade it throws at Nix can no longer be overlooked or explained away.

Surtain is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and the best cornerback in the NFL, so PFF had no problem taking the low-hanging fruit there. Then Sikkema completely steps on the rake by including an interior offensive lineman and a wide receiver entering his age-30 season — awesome though both Meinerz and Sutton are — instead of the player with the singular biggest impact on the team's 10-win playoff season now entering just his second year: Nix.

Broncos fans already know how pivotal Meinerz is. Although he was snubbed in the Pro Bowl voting, he garnered first-team All-Pro honors last season on the heels of the massive extension Denver gave him.

Sutton blossomed again in 2024 thanks to the arrival of Nix, posting just the second 1,000-yard receiving season of his career. He'll be an important piece to the Broncos' offensive puzzle, but Sutton is a far cry from being among the top three players who "matter most."

And the fact that PFF's 31st-ranked wideout is a playoff team's third-most crucial player? It just drips with ignorance (at best) and hypocrisy (at worst).

I could go on, recounting how PFF ranked the Broncos' quarterback room dead last in the NFL before last season and all the shade that was thrown at Nix before and after the draft, but fans know the song and dance by now. Nix posted one of the most historic rookie seasons by an NFL quarterback ever, and led a team that had a heretofore eight-year playoff drought back to the postseason.