Through 37 regular season games with the Denver Broncos, there haven’t been many fast starts for third year quarterback Bo Nix. That usually ends up crippling a team’s ability to find a way to win. However, Nix’s second half heroics and elevated play in the game’s waning moments have been a constant through his career.
Last night’s performance certainly wasn’t Nix’s best game. Not by a long shot. Nevertheless, he and his teammates on the offensive side of the ball performed much better in the second
half and were able to notch three scoring drives to help the team find a way to win.
With Denver’s comeback victory against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football, Nix is now 26-11 as the starting quarterback for the Broncos dating back to the 2024 season. In that timeframe, he has ten fourth quarter comebacks and twelve game winning drives. That’s the most of any quarterback in the National Football League. After the game, Nix spoke to the media about how he and the rest of his teammates are able to defy the odds and find a way to put it all together when it matters most.
“I think we’ve just been there and done that. Yes, we got down in a 16-point deficit, in a hole there, but we knew it was just a two-possession game with a couple of two-point conversations that we were able to convert on. That was obviously huge,” stated Nix.
“Overall, it may not look pretty, may not play a great second half in the future, but that’s why you play a good, complete four-quarter game. As a team, you put it all together. Then that’s just what we did. We kept battling and did what it took to get the win.”
Nix is no stranger to adversity. In his time at Auburn, he had his fair share of ups and downs. While he carved out several huge victories in his time with the Tigers, they never won a bowl game and endured two losing seasons with him at the helm of their offense. After their 6-7 finish in 2021, Nix transferred to Oregon with the hope he could revive his collegiate career.
Nix was a sub-60 percent passer at Auburn but elevated his passing game to new heights with the Ducks. In his two seasons in Eugene, Nix put up two monster seasons and had some of the best passing production of any quarterback in the nation. He would finish his collegiate career with the most games ever played and started by a quarterback.
Through all the ups and downs, his experience and gridiron journey resulted in him being picked at the twelfth overall selection by the Broncos in the 2024 NFL Draft. Fast forward to the present day, and Nix has arguably been the best quarterback of his class that featured six signal callers picked in the first round. The slow starts might be rough to watch, but the end result usually winds up in Denver’s favor by finishing strong.
“For us, once you’ve done it once, you feel like you can do it again. It’s just kind of where we are. We have a great belief that fourth quarter, end of game we’re going to have the ball last and no matter what, we’re going to go down and hopefully do whatever it takes to win the game or if not, tie the game and let our defense go out there and keep the game going. I think it’s just an overall belief, a team belief. When we get in the huddle, you don’t see any flinching in anybody’s eyes,” added Nix.
While he still has a lot to work on to make that big Year 3 jump, there is no doubting Nix’s mental toughness and intangibles. When the game is on the line, he finds a way to rise to the occasion and lead his team to victory. He is the definition of clutch. He has the ‘it’ factory you can’t teach.
It may not always be pretty to start things off, but the team and all of Broncos Country will gladly take the wins. At the end of the day, winning is what matters. And folks, Bo Nix is a winner, and I believe a quarterback who is just scratching the surface of his overall potential.
