ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos' rookie quarterback has added another accolade to an already impressive initial campaign.
Bo Nix has won the NFL's Rookie of the Week award for his Week 10 performance against the Chiefs.
Nix has been nominated for the award five times in 2024, but his Week 10 performance marks the first time he has earned the league award. He is the first Broncos rookie to win the award since cornerback Pat Surtain II in 2021 and the team's first offensive player to earn the honor since running back Javonte Williams in that same season.
In a narrow loss at Arrowhead, Nix completed 22-of-30 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. He also set a new career best for passer rating in a road game, as he posted a 115.3 mark.
Nix led the Broncos to a pair of second-quarter touchdown drives to take a halftime lead over Kansas City, and he guided a nearly six-minute drive at the end of the game to set up a 35-yard game-winning field-goal attempt. On a critical third down, Nix found Courtland Sutton for a 13-yard gain on third-and-6 to set Denver up for the field goal.
"There are these steps," Head Coach Sean Payton said Wednesday. "There will be some more adversity, but there is a poise with him. I think his teammates in the huddle talk about it. The third-down play was significant because right at that moment, then we controlled everything — the clock [and] the game. It was funny after the game, you're going across the field and I see [Chiefs Head Coach] Andy [Reid] and a few of the other guys. I see [Chiefs QB] Patrick [Mahomes] and knowing him and [he] just turned to me and said, 'You got one.' I think he told [QB] Bo [Nix], 'We're going to have a lot of good games.' That's something coming from him.
"We continue to look at the things that he does well and try to feature those things as he progresses into some of the things that he's going to need to do. Yeah, we're really encouraged."
The Oregon product was particularly effective on third down, as he completed 9-of-10 passes for six first downs, 83 yards, two touchdowns and a 140.8 passer rating. He is just the second player this season — joining two-time MVP Lamar Jackson — to complete 90 percent of his passes and record a 140.0 passer rating on third down.
Nix, who was previously named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month for October, was one of six finalists for the award. He won a fan vote over Tampa Bay's Bucky Irving, the New York Giants' Tyrone Tracy Jr., San Francisco's Ricky Pearsall, Houston's Kamari Lassiter and the Los Angeles Rams' Jared Verse.
