Bo Nix Has a Message for His Critics Entering Week 5

Publicly, Sean Payton continues to back offensive coordinator Davis Webb as the Denver Broncos' play-caller.

The scrutiny on Webb is at an all-time high. And local and national insiders report that Payton is running out of patience on the play-calling front.

Payton has not acknowledged any of that buzz publicly, and he's also been in no mood to throw third-year quarterback Bo Nix under the bus. However, with the Broncos sitting at 2-2 at the quarter pole, Payton knows that what he's seen is nowhere near good enough to meet the club's expectations.

His focus is figuring out how quickly these offensive issues can be fixed.

"I think that the most important job I have is really evaluating the whys," Payton said on Wednesday. "After a four-game sample size… All right, certainly this isn’t championship football or what we see; how quickly can we correct those things?”

Noise Pollution

The noise outside Broncos HQ is reaching levels that could drive this team to distraction. Winning heals all wounds, but Nix is doing his best to tune out the noise as he prepares to step into a stadium in which he's never won this weekend, as the Broncos travel to take on the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I think for me it’s very simple," Nix said on Wednesday. "For me, it’s all about who you’re giving your attention to. Who are you listening to? I think there’s something really valuable about tuning out the noise and not listening to all the noise and the distractions. If you’re not careful, that’s just what they become, just distractions.”

Nix chooses to listen to the people who are actively trying to make him better, like his coaches and teammates. They actually have the power to help him.

Source of the Criticism

Bo Nix. — Bo Nix stands alongside running back Tyler Badie. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

We have been critical of Nix this week because he left so many plays on the field in last Sunday's 24-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. 14 of his 25 completions went to running backs, and he seemed extremely hesitant to push the ball beyond 10 yards downfield.

Nix knows it, though. He knew he missed a few plays long before he ever turned on the Week 4 film.

“Yes, absolutely," Nix acknowledged that he missed some plays last Sunday. "There’s never been a game that I’ve played that I didn’t want to have a couple back... That’s just unfortunately what I’ve learned, is that you could play out of your mind, and I’d still go home thinking about one or two plays that are just driving me crazy."

No quarterback is perfect, but in the NFL, fans and media often hold them to unrealistic expectations. Nix pursues perfection, knowing that it's unattainable in the "never-satisfied game" that he plays professionally.

"So it’s sort of a never-satisfied game, and that’s one thing you have to be careful with this job, is working so hard and not ever being satisfied," Nix said. "For us, obviously it’s all about winning. It’s all about putting our team in the best situation possible. So for me, there are definitely several things that I want to change, and I want to get better at. That’s going to happen. It’s going to come over time.”

One of the challenges of being a quarterback is trying to walk the razor's edge of protecting the ball while also taking calculated risks to push it downfield at times. Since arriving as the Broncos' first-round pick in 2024, Nix has shown a penchant for walking that line, but this season, his balance, so to speak, has been off.

Mostly, we've seen a hesitant, almost unsure Nix where he seems quite reluctant to do anything but check the ball down to running backs. He's made some big-time throws, including a deep 49-yard near-touchdown strike to Jaylen Waddle in Week 2, but there's a reason Nix currently leads the league in passes behind the line of scrimmage.

“It’s the hardest thing, in my opinion, about playing the position because as soon as you make one throw and it’s picked, then you made a bad decision," Nix said. "As soon as you make one and you rip it and you’re like, ‘Well, I fit it in there, but it probably wasn’t smart.’ Then you’re considered lucky or you’re a gunslinger."

Nix has a point. But throwing the labels aside, that's the magical sweet spot the NFL's top-tier quarterbacks are trying to find. He has to figure out how to re-conjure some of that Mile High Magic without overthinking it.

Unique Year-3 Challenges

Coming off a broken ankle and two offseason surgeries, Nix has faced some unique challenges entering his third year. On top of that, the Broncos drew the NFL's toughest initial schedule — their first four opponents have literally been the four best teams in the league — and he's rolling with the punches of trying to execute for a new play-caller.

Meanwhile, the Broncos' offensive line is allowing pressure on Nix at an unprecedented rate this season, and his unit continues to be plagued by painfully slow starts in each game. Fortunately, he's able to cultivate a tough mindset and keep his focus on the plays and the things he can control.

"To me, it’s not about the labels. It’s not even the overall outcome," Nix said. "It’s about, ‘What was this play asking for? Did I do my job? Did I not?’"

Nix doesn't view himself as some kind of home-run hitter; he's more of a point guard whose job is to distribute the ball to his playmakers.

"If there’s an accumulation of plays that turns into me throwing the ball 100 times in a game down the field, then I’ll do it," Nix said. "But at the same time, when you consistently watch and if you look at the most successful guys, over and over, they just take completions. They keep the ball moving. They have less footballs on the ground. When it’s there, yes you hit it, but at the same time, first-and-20, you’re not eager to just drop back and just force something out there."

It's a respectable mindset, but the easy completions can't always come at the expense of foregoing a shot at the big play. Nix knows that. And as he said, he believes it'll all come together for this offense in time.

Tick-Tock

Sean Payton. — Sean Payton works the sideline against the 49ers. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Payton's concern is that it doesn't all come together too late. He knows exactly what Nix's film last week showed: a handful of missed opportunities.

"We've had some opportunities, but there are a handful of things that aren't clicking," Payton said. "And we gotta figure it out fast, because we're going into Week 5."

Payton and Webb are focused on helping the young quarterback and the players around Nix fine-tune "the little things" that will, ostensibly, lead to better results in the bigger picture.

"The thing that I saw in the film was, yes, are there certain throws that, from a timing standpoint, he wants back? Yes," Payton said of Nix. "But I think, collectively, when you’re playing well on offense, you’re doing a lot of little things well, and then that job for him becomes somewhat easier. So that’s really the focus this week is the little things, detailing the little things, and we’ll see that in the end product.”

The Takeaway

The Broncos are working hard to tune out the noise. But if they go into SoFi Stadium and lose to the winless Chargers, that din will get cranked up to '11,' and might make it impossible to ignore.

For the sake of Payton, Webb, Nix, and the Broncos, they need to get a win on Sunday and not fall prey to the wild machinations of a wounded, cornered animal, as Jim Harbaugh's Chargers appear to be entering Week 5.

Nix has never beaten the Justin Herbert-led Chargers. Nix got a win in the finale last year, but Harbaugh rested Herbert and many of his starters.

I don't care that L.A. is 0-4; if Nix can go into SoFi and get a win head-to-head over Herbert and a divisional opponet that has foiled him for two-plus years, it could do wonders for his confidence and momentum going into Week 6's home game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Winning is the salve that heals all wounds, and it would certainly quiet the noise.

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