Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton believes his workforce is a legit Tremendous Bowl contender after quarterback and 2024 first-round draft decide Bo Nix was higher than marketed as a rookie starter.
Throughout a current chat with Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated, Payton gave the Nix hype prepare some further momentum by way of a daring prediction relating to what the 25-year-old might be a few years down the highway.
“I actually suppose he’s gonna be one of many high quarterbacks throughout the subsequent two years,” Payton mentioned about Nix. “I feel he’s going to be a celebrity.”
Some instructed within the spring of 2024 that Payton and Co. reached after they made Nix the twelfth total decide of final 12 months’s draft. Nix then went 10-7 as a starter as he guided the membership to a playoff berth.
Per Professional Soccer Reference, Nix ended the 2024 common season ranked sixth within the NFL with 29 landing passes, twelfth with 3,775 passing yards and nineteenth amongst certified gamers with a 56.8 adjusted QBR. In complete, 23 quarterbacks took extra sacks than Nix (24) throughout the marketing campaign.
In line with StatMuse, no signal-caller took extra sacks than Russell Wilson did with the Broncos from Week 1 of the 2022 marketing campaign by way of the tip of the 2023 common season.
“Who will get the blame? ‘God, the road’s gotta get higher.’ And it’s at all times the road. The sack is a quarterback stat,” Payton added. “We had 24 [in 2024]. I had Bobby Hoying [in the late 1990s], third-round decide. Man, he was a great-looking prospect. He took three or 4 sacks a sport. It’s a processing factor. It’s decision-making, multi-tasking, ball out.”
As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Broncos at -140 betting odds to make the playoffs for the upcoming season. Considerably apparently, that similar outlet had Nix and Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams at +3500 odds to assert the Most Useful Participant Award for the marketing campaign.
If Nix can comply with in Stafford’s footsteps by way of early 2026, Payton might be proper concerning the present Denver squad competing for greater than only a postseason berth.
