Good morning, Broncos Country!
Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos know the offense has to get better.
That’s one of the reasons head coach Sean Payton made the decision to take back the play-calling duties this week. But it’s all for naught unless the guys on the field execute better, and that includes Nix.
There have been flashes in the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams, but it’s not consistent, and it’s not showing up in the first half.
The first opportunity to change the offensive tide comes today against
the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I think running the ball efficiently, the play action passing game, and then the route specifics relative to protection,” Payton said to the media earlier this week. “There’s so much that goes into making his job easier, and then if you’re having trouble, for instance, with early-down efficiency, second-and-nine or third down-and-long, those would be a few that come to my mind right away.”
As with any quarterback at this level of play, Nix always feels like he left plays on the field. That’s true for the loss to the San Francisco 49ers. As he said to the media earlier this week:
“There’s never been a game that I’ve played that I didn’t want to have a couple back. There were a couple of plays where I wanted to make a throw, or maybe not pull the trigger or throw it to somebody else. 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.
“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. 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.”
What helps Nix is his fearless approach to making plays. If we can see the Nix that we saw in the win over Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, which also happens to be the last time Payton called plays with Nix at quarterback, that would be a refreshing development.
“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 about not being afraid to take risks. “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. To me, it’s not about the labels. It’s not even the overall outcome. It’s about, ‘What was this play asking for? Did I do my job? Did I not?’ 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. 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.
“At the same time, you want to get a positive play and get to second-and-manageable so that you can get to third-and-short. Now sometimes, you miss one, and you’re like, ‘Man, that first-and-20, I was a little too safe because I didn’t want to… We were close to field-goal range. I didn’t want to put the ball in harm’s way. We’re trying to start fast. I want to get for sure a field goal.’ So then it comes back to, ‘I should’ve been a little more aggressive. At the same time, if I’m dumb and I do something stupid, then you all are killing me because I didn’t take the field goal. So at the same time, ‘What does the play ask for? What situation in the game are we? Are we in the fourth quarter and we’re down by eight, and it doesn’t matter, I have to do this anyway?’ Yes, then let’s do it. At the same time, we weren’t in that situation the majority of the game to where it’s just all or nothing, let’s just be dumb.
“So at the same time, it’s like I want to be aggressive. I want to be really, when it’s open, let’s hit it. But at the same time, I’ve been gotten too many times trying to do too much. In this day and age, in our offense, I don’t have to be a hero on every play. I don’t have to do too much. Get the ball to (RB) RJ (Harvey), and he’ll run for 20 [yards]. That’s just as good sometimes as throwing it 20 yards in the air. So I’m actively looking at it and seeing where I can grow. The labels and stuff, that’s where you can sort of get caught up in it. If you’re not careful, turnovers may go through the roof, and that’s just not what I need to be doing.”
The good news for the Broncos is they’re 2-2 after a brutal schedule to start the season. The hope is that the switch back to Payton as play-caller lights a fire in the offense and the team. Against a division rival that’s winless, you know the Chargers will come out extremely motivated.
“From a player perspective, we can always do more,” Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton said to the media. “There are things here and there that we may not be fully … I don’t want to say not dialed in on, but there is a little bit of attention to detail that we need to tighten up as players. As a collective, we need to find a way to maximize the opportunities when they do pop and minimize the lack of attention to detail that may transpire over the course of a full game.”
