ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Bo Nix will begin his NFL career by learning from one of the best offensive minds the NFL has ever seen.
“It’s very surreal,” Nix said, talking about being able to work with Sean Payton after the Denver Broncos selected him with 12th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
“I grew up watching Drew Brees, I grew up watching Coach Payton coach. I watched their Super Bowl. I knew the efficient offenses that they had and how well they worked together,” Nix continued, explaining how much he admires his new head coach.
“Honestly, in college you learn with so many different coaches, that relationship is so important. So it’s one that every quarterback and play caller and head coach need to have together. I’m excited to be around him, I’m excited to learn from him,” the 24-year-old rookie added. “Everything he tells me is something that I’m probably not going to know. So I’m going to do my best to take it all in and apply it to the field.”
Since the turn of the century, it’s hard to find a more successful offensive coach than Payton. During his 15 years with the New Orleans Saints, Payton had a top five scoring offense in nine different seasons. He had a top 12 scoring offense in 12 of his 15 years in New Orleans.
To put that in perspective, since 2000, Andy Reid has only had seven top five scoring offenses, despite being a head coach seven more seasons than Payton during that time period.
Yet, despite the incredible resource Nix now has in Denver, he’s also going to lean on other all-time quarterbacks to try and be the best possible NFL player.
“I got a text from Peyton Manning [the night I was drafted],” Nix, who attended the Manning Passing Academy growing up, revealed. “He’s always been so willing to reach out to me. He’s very good at being available to those young guys. He’s like that at the camp, he’s obviously like that with the Broncos players. I’m excited to seriously be around him and spend some time with him.”
Payton and George Paton revealed that Manning remains a “great resource” for the Broncos’ entire organization, specifically the quarterbacks on the roster.
“Especially for a quarterback, someone like Peyton, his status, legend. He has his [quarterback] camp, I think Bo went to the camp,” Paton added. “It’s huge to have someone like that here who’s close to the organization. I think it’s great for all of our players and everyone in the organization. He comes by all the time, and we have dinner so it’s outstanding to pick his brain, obviously he knows all the quarterbacks.”
Leading up to the draft, Nix spent time and learned from one of Manning’s rivals.
“This past offseason, I was fortunate to be around Philip Rivers,” Nix stated. “The knowledge that [these quarterbacks] possess, you can’t get from anywhere else. It’s the resource that I’m excited to use.”
While the 6-foot-2, 217-pound Nix doesn’t profile exactly as Manning or Rivers, picking their brain and learning from once-great quarterbacks can only benefit the rookie.
The quarterback Nix is most often compared to is Payton’s former quarterback Drew Brees.
“Whenever you’re compared to a guy like Drew Brees, it’s an honor just because of the success he had and the career that he had,” Nix said shortly after Denver drafted him in the first round.
Nix would love to add Brees to his roster of quarterbacks he can learn from.
“With Coach Payton and his background with Drew Brees, I’d love to get connected to him just because he’s been through it, he knows what it’s like and maybe I can take something from all those guys to where I can be the best version of myself,” Nix said.
Between Manning, Brees and Rivers, Nix has the possibility to dip into an incredible wealth of knowledge and success.
Between the three, there are two first-ballot Hall-of-Famers, with Rivers having a chance to land a Gold Jacket one day too, three Super Bowls and two Super Bowl MVPs. In terms of awards, the three have a combined 35 Pro Bowls, eight First-team All-Pros and seven Second-team All-Pros. On the field, the three led the NFL in passing yards 11 times, passing touchdowns nine times, passer rating six times and completion percentage nine times.
All of this experience, information and talent appears to be at Nix’s fingertips. Even more importantly for the Broncos, their rookie quarterback wants to use these incredible resources to help him grow into the Denver Broncos’ next franchise signal caller.
