Following a franchise-best rookie season in which Broncos quarterback Bo Nix helped lead Denver back to the playoffs after seven long seasons without an appearance, the sky’s the limit for the second-year signal-caller that won over fans and teammates alike. This year, it’s been hard to find a Broncos player who doesn’t call Nix the team’s leader, but for Nix, it’s just part of the job – and right now, the job is a fun one.
“I think most of it is the position, and then I guess it’s what’s done after you get the position,” Nix explained following practice on Saturday. “For me, I just want to continue to show these guys that I’m willing to work, and find every which way we can to find wins, and find every which way for me to get better.”
Nix, who improved on a weekly basis last season, throwing 29 touchdowns to only eight interceptions after looking like a rookie by throwing four interceptions in his first two starts, intends for that trend to continue. “I know I have a lot of growth left, a lot to be done, but these guys are going to help me get there,” Nix said. “We’re just out here just kind of sharpening each other, going best-on-best and just finding ways to make each other better. It’s fun.”
Normally, practicing in the July heat of training camp doesn’t conjure up most people’s idea of ‘fun,’ but it’s already obvious that these Broncos are both a businesslike and tightly-knit bunch. The positive energy at camp – especially on Friday and Saturday, with fans in attendance – was palpable. According to Nix, who noted, “we don’t really have a lot of prima donnas,” that makes everything easier… and fun. “Being the quarterback of a team like this, it’s what you live for. It’s what you practice for, work for your whole time. Literally, when I started lifting and training and getting ready for this football journey back in the sixth, seventh grade, it was really fun.”
That camaraderie doesn’t just spring into existence; it take time get to know and appreciate all the different people and personalities in any given locker room, but following their playoff cameo last season, most of the Broncos’ players have returned; an all-too-unusual event given the never-ending churn and turnover of NFL rosters. “One is we have probably the most guys in the NFL back, just guys that have returned. I feel like I’m playing with a similar team as we did last year. Not a lot of turnover,” Nix explained. “Then we added some special guys that were good locker room guys, good teammates, have that history of working hard, being experienced. They’re going to make a big difference for us. We’re all just trying to compete to get better. We’re all trying to make each other better. I think that’s just kind of showing in the locker room, out on the field, in the cafeteria. We just have a close team. I think it starts with, honestly, the type of people we have in the locker room. We don’t have any clowns. We don’t have any guys that are hard to get along with. We just have good people; good dudes that are all here for one reason, and that’s one team goal – just to get better.”
Nix often demurs when it comes to accepting praise, but it’s been coming non-stop since his stellar rookie season; perhaps most notably, his No. 64 ranking on the NFL Network’s “Top 100” players list – one that’s voted on by the league’s players themselves. “I’m kind of on both sides with it. I think it’s obviously a cool honor because that’s [what] your peers think, guys you play,” Nix said, just before slipping into the pattern he showed last season – using praise and motivation. “At the same time, just the way I think, the way I am motivated, I want to continue to get higher; not even for the ranking. It doesn’t really matter what you’re ranked; it’s just an internal standard that I have that I want to be the best in the world. I know there are a lot of guys that I’m competing for that with. I’m not going to stop until I at least give it my best try.”
The fun is back; for Broncos fans and for the players themselves. A stacked AFC and an challenging schedule awaits, and this time around, neither Nix nor the Broncos will sneak up on anybody. “I know it. I can get there and do it, and knock it out – and now I can focus on the next level of things and the details, and not really the overall picture. A lot of the times as a rookie, you just don’t want to look like an idiot. Now you can go out there and look a lot better than an idiot. So I’m excited for Year 2; I’m excited for this football team. I really like where we’re at right now. I love our teammates.”
