Former Heisman Winner Makes Eye-Opening Claim About Broncos QB Bo Nix

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix finished his rookie season as an 18-game starter (counting playoffs), passing for 3,775 yards and 29 touchdowns, with 12 interceptions. Nix led all rookies in passing yards and touchdowns.

Even the dual-threat phenom Jayden Daniels couldn't eclipse Nix's 34 total touchdowns, counting his four rushing and one receiving. But what does the tape say of Nix's rookie campaign?

After what sounds like an intensive deep-dive, former No. 2 overall draft pick Robert Griffin III, who played for Washington, Cleveland, and Baltimore, says Nix is the NFL's most underrated quarterback.

"After watching all of his film from last year, Bo Nix is the most underrated QB in the NFL," Griffin posted on X.

Since he hung up his NFL cleats, Griffin has made the rounds in the media space. Now, the former Heisman Trophy winner hosts his own podcast called Outta Pocket With RGIII. He still makes the NFL his business, although his last season as a player was in 2020.

Nix is definitely underrated around the NFL landscape, but not within Broncos Country. After suffering through the post-Peyton Manning depredations, Broncos fans have sadly come to know well what mediocre and sub-par quarterbacking looks like.

Nix was a breath of fresh air and a palpable upgrade over anything the Broncos had fielded under center since 'The Sheriff' rode off into the sunset following Super Bowl 50. The fact that Nix passed for more touchdowns in his rookie campaign than any other Broncos quarterback not-named Manning had ever done was actually quite unbelievable.

Before Manning arrived for his four-year stint in Denver in 2012, the franchise record for touchdown passes in a single season was co-held by John Elway and Jake Plummer at 27. Manning arrived and in Year 1, decimated that mark, passing for 37 touchdowns, followed by the NFL's all-time record of 55 in 2013, and 39 in 2014.

Nix rewrote the Broncos' rookie record books and set some NFL marks, too. When it comes to league rookie marks, he passed for the second-most touchdowns in rookie history, behind only Justin Herbert's 31, and achieved the following league records:

• Most games with 200-plus passing yards & two-plus touchdowns with zero interceptions in NFL history.
• Three games with three-plus passing touchdowns, the second most by a rookie in NFL history.
• 19 passing touchdowns at home, the most by any rookie in NFL history.

Thinking about how slow Nix's start was statistically, it boggles the mind to ponder what his stats may have looked like had he hit the ground running as a rookie. When it comes to what that might look like, I supposed we're "fixin' to find out," as Gary Kubiak was fond of saying.

Nix will open his second year unencumbered by the rookie training wheels that Broncos head coach Sean Payton installed around him to safeguard his initial steps. The fullness of Payton's playbook is now open to Nix, plus he has all that NFL experience, an elite offensive line, and an upgraded supporting cast that includes newcomers like tight end Evan Engram, and running backs RJ Harvey and J.K. Dobbins.

It's going to be a fun year. Will Nix continue to be unheralded across the NFL?

Probably, even if he delivers an even better sophomore showing. Payton purportedly wants to make Nix "a star," and it will take that level of breakthrough for his legions of naysayers to come around.

All of the freezing-cold takes surrounding Nix have already been exposed. But due to all the negative tropes that surrounded him as a draft prospect coming out of Oregon, it'll take Nix and Payton a few years, with sustained success, to bring the NFL world at large around to the full realization (and admission) that the Broncos not only have a franchise quarterback, but one of the best young signal-callers in the league.