Bo Nix struggled mightily against the Chargers, despite the Broncos winning 19-3.

It was one of his worst games of 2025, even when you consider that Sean Payton called a conservative game on purpose.

Nix must be better throughout the playoffs if the Broncos hope to win and move forward to a Super Bowl.

Bo Nix struggled on Sunday vs. the Chargers

For Nix, his 141 passing yards were the fewest of the season, his -19.3 CPOE was also his worst, and his four sacks were the most he’s been taken down in a single game this year.

Yes, Sean Payton’s game plan was conservative. It was the same one he used against the Jets, as well as the Raiders and Chiefs in those most-recent games. That meant limiting passing to only two throws over 10 yards, checking down a lot, and allowing Nix to use his legs.

To be fair, Nix was great on the ground on Sunday. He ran for a team-leading 49 yards, including a 22-yard scamper on the Broncos’ opening drive. That 15-play drive seemed right out of those Raiders and Chiefs games, where they had three 14-play drives in each one. But Denver couldn’t capitalize on the methodical drive with a touchdown.

Back to Nix’s passing; his CPOE was astronomically low. That stat means completion percentage over expected. In other words, because he was throwing so many short passes in the game, you’d expect him to have an 80.2 completion percentage, instead of the decent-but-not-great 60.9%.

Here’s a look at his passing chart from Next Gen Stats:

Interestingly, rbsdm.com had his CPOE at -12.7% for the Chargers game, which was fifth-worst in Week 18. Nix’s 1.1 air yards were by far the lowest of any player (3.3 was next-lowest).

Nix isn’t beating the “checkdown merchant” nickname with numbers like that.

Of course, his air yards were that low because of Payton’s game plan. That’s not Nix’s fault; it was scripted to not throw the ball deep, basically for 60 minutes.

Still, the other analytics don’t like how he performed.

Bo Nix struggled so much, his EPA+CPOE was -0.044. That ranked 28th out of 31 qualifying players. Only three backups who were playing had worse days.

The young quarterback took responsibility for his bad play, though.

“Well, I should’ve done a better job today having more urgency in the huddle and getting us going,” Nix explained after the win on Sunday. “I felt like I failed us on that. Overall, I thought we didn’t play with the tempo and passion we normally play with. There’s a lot that goes into that…So, next time we get in that spot, I
have to have better urgency and be a little bit of spark myself. The rest of the guys will do the same.”

Broncos offense needs to bounce back in Divisional Round

Bo Nix and the Broncos offense need to bounce back in the playoffs, and there’s reason to be hopeful they will.

Despite losing to the Jaguars, Denver put up 445 total yards of offense, the second-most of any game this season. What sunk the team that day were the two turnovers.

Still, Nix played great from Week 11 through week 15. That was the Chiefs, Commanders, Raiders, and Packers games. Over that four-game stretch, he was 6th in EPA+CPOE. Over the last three games, he’s fallen to 20th in those advanced metrics.

Basically, we know Nix can play great football. He has in stretches both this season and in his rookie year. Now, he needs to play great for three straight games against playoff teams.

It’s not just him.

The offensive line needs to protect well, and they let the Chargers get in Nix’s grill last week. Similarly, the playmakers need to catch the ball. The Broncos drops have been an issue all year long, and they’re second in the league in drops.

Finally, Sean Payton’s play calling needs to revert to what we saw in the first Chiefs game and the Packers win. He mixed in short, medium, and deep passing with runs inside and outside the tackles. He set the Packers up and exploited them.

With any hope, Payton’s offense will be much more explosive in the Divisional Round.

Until then, the Broncos wait to see who their opponents will be. They’ll face the lowest remaining seed after this weekend’s Wild Card Round.