Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix is going through a two-game slump right now as the team sits at 8-2 with a big-time matchup looming against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Nix struggled quite a bit in Thursday’s win, throwing two interceptions compared to one touchdown, but the glaring sight from Thursday was how uncomfortable he looked. His confidence looks entirely gone, and it’s led to shaky footwork when the pocket is clean; he’s throwing off balance at times.
But here’s the reality — struggles are a normal part of quarterback development, and right now, Nix is in a slump. His career isn’t over; he’s not a finished product.
Twitter isn’t a real place, despite the loudest critics of Nix living there, citing X and Y-axis charts to try and compartmentalize advanced metrics in order to say Bo isn’t a good quarterback. We’ve seen Bo showcase multiple times on the field that he can be a good quarterback.
The instant gratification era of expecting quarterback perfection is clouding the judgment and ultimately the patience of a fanbase in letting a quarterback develop. There’s going to be good moments and bad moments. We’re seeing some of those bad moments in his second NFL season.
The number of college starts or age argument is something I don’t care about, because those two things don’t necessarily define a finite conclusion about what a quarterback can become. As we’ve seen with Nix over the course of his college career, he developed quite a bit and improved every single year. A quarterback’s ability to process information, the personnel around him, and the environment in which he learns are also important.
Nix’s ability to process information and retain it and execute it is one of the highest marks he’s received from this coaching staff coming out of college and over the course of his early NFL career.
Bo is struggling, and we can be honest about that. Some of his struggles are on him, some of them are relative to play calling at times, and some of them are personnel related.
Denver Broncos offensive issues not solely on Bo Nix
The Broncos’ offense hasn’t been good enough this season, and there are plenty of dirty hands on the operation.
We’re seeing Nix deal with a mental slump that is impacting physical elements of his game, like his footwork, his release, and how he’s seeing the field. The good news with that is that these issues are fixable and can be cleaned up.
Let’s talk about the run game — statistically, the Broncos have a top-five rushing attack in terms of yards per game, but the balance between the run and pass has been an issue. For two consecutive weeks, Sean Payton has had Nix throwing 15+ times in the first half against the Houston Texans and the Raiders, while only having six rushing attempts in both of those games in the first half, especially after J.K. Dobbins, the NFL’s third leading rusher, gets off to a good start.
When Nix was drafted, Payton himself said that the best ally to a young quarterback is a strong run game and strong defense, and Denver has both. The defense is carrying the water, but the offense’s lack of commitment to running the football on a down-to-down basis isn’t where it needs to be.
Payton and Nix air it out too often, and when passes are falling incomplete and the clock is stopping, it leads to failed drives.
Penalties have also plagued this offensive unit. The Broncos lead the league in penalties with 83, with 42 of them being called on the offense. Early down efficiency has been impacted by penalties, and long-field situations certainly haven’t helped them be more productive.
Shifting to personnel for a moment.
From a coaching and play-calling perspective, we’re seeing a disconnect between the play-caller and the signal-caller under center. There are times after the offense runs a play that new personnel are running onto the field with 22 seconds on the play clock, getting into the huddle, breaking the huddle, and getting a snap off with five seconds on the play clock, and even at times with one second left.
The amount of time that inconsistently passes where Nix doesn’t get a chance to fully read the defense is something that has impacted the flow of the offense. If you don’t believe me, pay attention to it yourself this Sunday vs. Kansas City.
Another example is when the Broncos bring Tyler Badie onto the field, where he’s mainly a third-down option, but they also bring him in on other downs. He doesn’t touch the ball as a ball-carrier and is often a pass-catching option out of the backfield. If we’re seeing it, defensive coordinators are seeing it. When No. 28 is in, the Broncos are passing the ball, and that tendency is something that tips the offense’s hand to the defense.
Bo’s slump is real, but it’s not the end of the world
Bo’s slump is impacting the offense, but it’s not as doom and gloom as Twitter makes it out to be, especially over the course of the last two games, where he completed 48.6% of his passes against the Texans and 57.1% of his passes against the Raiders. In this stretch, he’s thrown three touchdowns and three interceptions, but the world is not ending.
He’s third in the NFL in passing touchdowns as of Sunday Night with 18 compared to eight interceptions. He’s seventh in passing yards this season and has been one of the least sacked quarterbacks in the NFL.
This slump feels a lot worse than it actually is, and that’s largely due to the social media echochamber of the acronym chart bros who live their lives trying to speak in absolutes over X and Y-axis graphs.
Nix has 55 career touchdowns in a season and a half, while being one of the least sacked quarterbacks in the league and not turning the football over often. He can continue to grow and develop, and any obituary being written about his career right now is ridiculous.
He’s shown he’s capable of winning and leading the team to wins, and has developed a clutch gene late in games, where he’s led seven fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives in 27 career games so far.
The story is still being written, and he’ll have to make some adjustments himself in order to shake the slump, but the idea that his struggles are solely his issues is a clear disconnect from reality.
He’ll have a chance to change the narrative on Sunday against the Chiefs and the hope is that he can buck the slump sooner rather than later.
