Oregon QB Bo Nix on NFL Outlook: 'I've Been Around the Block'
The Denver Broncos are on the quarterback hunt. Oregon's Bo Nix has been often linked to the Broncos in the pre-draft rumor mill, especially over the past few weeks.
Nix is navigating the Senior Bowl drills with the polished savvy of a player who spent five years honing his craft at the collegiate level. The early returns on Nix are emerging from Mobile.
It doesn't seem as if the Senior Bowl is going to launch a stratospheric rise into the top-5 of the 2024 NFL draft. Still, the 23-year-old won't hamper his opportunities to improve his draft stock by misspeaking at the podium.
“I’ve been around the block... However that translates next, I think it’ll just show the adaptability and comfortability that I have, having to learn new things," Nix said from the podium on Tuesday, courtesy of Denver Sports' Andrew Mason.
If the recurring knock on Michigan's J.J. McCarthy is that he hasn't compiled a big enough resume, the same detractors will paradoxically point to Nix having spent too much time at Auburn and Oregon. Draft analyst Dane Brugler of The Athletic was a little more generous in his praise of the former Ducks quarterback when he spoke to Chris Tommasson of The Denver Gazette.
“There’s a lot of things with him that project well at the next level,’’ Brugler said via Tomasson. “He’s a really talented thrower of the ball and uses different arm angles and his scrambling can be a weapon... Oregon made it very simple on him to know where to go with the football. But he had the third-lowest depth of target on every attempt at only 6.8 yards. So, we’ll have to see (during the pre-draft process) how well he pushes the ball downfield.”
Luckily, Nix seems as composed at the podium as he is in the pocket, and that kind of self-confidence goes far, especially in the elongated draft evaluation process. Several mock drafts have also pointed out how Nix fits the basic requirements that Broncos head coach Sean Payton looks for in his signal-callers.
The recent buzz is that Payton will be pushing all of his chips into the middle of the table in a trade-up for a QB. It's an intriguing narrative, but it's also one Broncos Country had best not take too seriously for now.
The Broncos are sitting on only six 2024 draft picks, and no second-rounder this year, with a strong reluctance not to trade star cornerback Patrick Surtain II, so you can bet that quarterbacks like Nix are the more realistic targets for Payton at No. 12 overall.
Nix is already regarded as a relatively safe pair of hands. Establishing that baseline is fine, but is he really worthy of using the No. 12 pick on, or does it make much more sense to risk trading down in the hope of nabbing him for better value?
When framed within the context of a three-star quarterback likely to plummet on Draft Day, the Broncos will have to embrace the reality of where they're picking. There are severe limitations that will hamper the Broncos' chances of moving up the draft board, but they certainly aren't out of the quarterback sweepstakes entirely.
Payton and company will have to be smart and make sure the next potential quarterback checks all of their boxes, irrespective of where the Broncos ultimately end up picking in the draft.
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