Broncos TE Adam Trautman Blasts 'Coward' Critics of Bo Nix

It was the Denver Broncos' turn to clap back at the critics following Sunday's 22-19 upset victory over the Kansas City Chiefs — and clap back they did.

Broncos tight end Adam Trautman, in particular, focused his ire on the skeptics of quarterback Bo Nix, deriding them in no uncertain terms as "absolute coward[s]" whose opinions of Nix are irrelevant.

“If you’re talking s*** about Bo online, you’re a coward. Absolute coward. … He blanks it out … We don’t care what other people think," Trautman told reporters, via Andrew Mason of DenverSports.com. "We know what we have in the building, and we know what he’s made of, and we don’t really care what people have to say, so, Dragonslayer69 with his 7-11 Slurpee in his mom’s basement, I don’t give a s*** what he has to say, right? And Bo doesn’t, either.”

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Arguably outplaying his Chiefs counterpart, Nix completed 24-of-37 passes for 295 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions in Week 11, leading 9-2 Denver to its eighth consecutive win. He finished with an 89.4 passer rating, buoyed by several clutch throws in the fourth quarter and on the team's game-winning field goal drive.

Detractors be damned.

“He’s outstanding," head coach Sean Payton said of Nix. "I think [he played] real well, he won. It’s his job. He won against a pretty stingy defense that can give you problems. There were some big plays there, and we had some early field position in the first half, and I’m like, man, there’s a couple of those field goals. One of them just needed to be a touchdown. I felt at halftime good about where we were relative to the matchup of our defense and their offense. Their early start, first 15-type team. I felt like, aside from some of the penalties, we did a good job in all three phases.”

Nov 16, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) looks to pass during the first quarter of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Bo Blocks Out the Noise

Nix made a striking admission in the lead-up to Sunday's contest, revealing that he had deleted social media to help persevere through continued criticism. Such is life nowadays; spam blockers are required in real life, too.

"For whatever reason in life and in football, people think that we have this opportunity to doubt or question or hype up or tear down these guys," Nix told reporters last Wednesday. "It’s really in sport in general. We make this entertainment business a lot bigger than what it is. We forget that everybody’s just out here having a good time, having fun, doing the best they can. But for me, it’s quite simple. I delete all my social media, I don’t have it so unless someone says it to my face, I don’t really hear it and nobody’s ever bold enough to say it to my face."

Let 'Em Hate

As is often the case this year, the performance of the Broncos offense against the Chiefs wasn't perfect. Hampered by the loss of leading rusher J.K. Dobbins, they failed to establish a ground game (59 yards) and went stretches — including the entire second quarter — without putting up points.

But a win's a win's a win, and Nix isn't in the business of apologizing for them. This is a sophomore signal-caller who's completely unbothered by any outside noise.

“Yes, and people are always entitled to their opinions," he said when asked if it's rewarding to play well in the face of critique. "They’re always going to say what they think and that’s also what makes our country great. At the end of the day, you just got to block it out. You can’t involve yourself with what’s outside the building because if you do, it’ll just bog you down, get you distracted and you start worrying about things you shouldn’t be worrying about. Everybody’s always going to say something. For some reason, we’re always going to be talked down upon and that’s okay.”