If the Broncos want to win a Super Bowl, Bo Nix needs to fix his footwork.
That, per Chase Daniel on Instagram.
Daniel isn’t the only one who’s noticed some issues with Nix’s footwork, but he did break it down well in a recent video.
Denver Broncos Bo Nix needs to fix his footwork
Bo Nix is a middle-of-the-pack quarterback right now.
NFL scouts and executives rated him as the 18th-best QB and if he wants to move up that list, there’s a focal point for him. It’s his footwork.
Chase Daniel explained that in a recent video. For context, Daniel played 13 years in the NFL, including 4 years under Sean Payton, and he regularly likes to talk about how quarterbacks can improve.
“I like Bo Nix a lot,” Daniel Started.
“The thing that really stood out to me that he can really improve on this year is footwork. And footwork is the one thing because everything starts from the ground-up when you’re a quarterback. And when you are in rhythm and on time in certain route concepts that’s a really good thing. That’s where you want to live. If you’re in Sean Payton’s offense, everybody thinks ‘there’s one type of thee-step drop, there’s one type of five-step drop…’ Nuh-uh. That’s not the case. There could be three to four different kinds of five-step drops.”
That’s very interesting information from Daniel. The differences in the drops and the variation between them. Do most football fans know that? I’m not so sure.
It turns out, Nix may not have understood them himself.
“And all those things I don’t think that Bo understood at that time,” Daniel continued. “So when you watched him, you’d see him really sped up. And him waiting on concepts. And his feet would just go pitter patter, pitter patter. He would take off after first and second read.”
Nix is a fast processor; maybe too fast
As Daniel mentioned there, he was taking off too soon. Running when the first or second read wasn’t open.
But his timing was also off. He was processing so fast and progressing too quickly through his reads.
“He’s very good with his progression, I mean clean with it,” Sean Payton said of Nix. “And he’s not someone who’s slow to progress and slow to process, it’s the other way. There’s sometimes where he’s through one so fast and man, one’s going to be…[open]. But I’d rather deal with that than the slow processor.”
Without throwing his quarterback under the bus, Payton is basically saying the same thing as Daniel there. And considering Daniel played for Payton, it seems likely the two talk from time to time.
Being that fast a processor is a double-edged sword. On one hand, he moves through the route concepts so quickly he can’t find anyone open. On the other, that fast thinking helps him avoid sacks at a league-best rate.
Still, he has to find a middle ground.
How exactly will he improve this year?
“He’s going to really try to marry his feet with the concept,” Daniel said. “If he does that, I think they’re going to be really successful.”
The Broncos were on the verge of the Super Bowl last year, with Nix’s broken ankle keeping them out of the big game. The championship window is currently open, but that demands that Nix be better than average and better than he’s been to this point. Even if that’s just incrementally better.
Tonight, Nix won’t play in the Denver Broncos Week 3 preseason tilt vs. the Vikings. That game kicks off at 7 p.m. MT on 9News.
Then, the regular season kicks off in two weeks with the Broncos going to Kansas City to play the Chiefs on Monday Night Football, on Sept. 14.