The Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears were clutch last season.
The Broncos, led by quarterback Bo Nix, went 11-2 in one-score games in 2025. The Bears, with quarterback Caleb Williams leading the charge, went 7-4 in games decided by eight or fewer points. Nix posted seven game-winning drives and five fourth-quarter comebacks in his second season. Williams had six GWDs and six comeback wins.
“For both of those players, you guys have heard me say this: Confidence can only be born out of demonstrated ability," Broncos coach Sean Payton said of Nix and Williams this spring. "So I would ask everyone here, if I said to you, ‘Caleb and Bo, are they more confident this year?’ Absolutely. Now there’s nothing that says that’s promised the next year, and Ben
[Johnson] knows this. You turn the board upside down. You place it and you collect your pieces, whatever the game is. You have to start back at zero. But when you start back there, you have a little bit of a bank vault that is filled with these positive experiences.
"If you believe it can happen once, then… You’re a different player at the start of this season than you were at the start of the other season. The one-score games, I think it just provides you… In the college game, there are far fewer of those games. So it provides you with [knowing], ‘This is more the norm.’ We might be down six [points], up six, up three, tied at half. You get used to living in that world. I think that’s a big thing, especially for the quarterback.”
As Payton noted, Denver and Chicago can't take it for granted that they'll have that many one-score victories in 2026. It's a new season with new challenges, and they will have to prove themselves once again. But after demonstrating clutch comebacks throughout the 2025 campaign, Nix and Williams should both feel confident in their ability to do the same in 2026. Now entering their third seasons in the NFL, both QBs will look to take another step forward this fall.
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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Bo Nix shares this trait with Caleb Williams going into Year 3
