As 2024 Training Camp powered by Ford approaches, we're taking a closer look at all three quarterbacks on the Broncos' roster. Jarrett Stidham, Zach Wilson and Bo Nix are set to compete for Denver's starting job, and each player spoke with DenverBroncos.com in mid-June.
We finish the series with Nix, whom the Broncos selected in the 2024 NFL Draft.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Bo Nix's first weeks in Denver lived up to the expectations he's always held for his NFL career.
"It's been great," Nix told DenverBroncos.com in mid-June as the Broncos ended their offseason program. "It's been really fun. I think it's been a great learning curve. It's been all the things that I always thought of the NFL: [the] long, extensive plays with a lot of checks and all this kind of stuff. That's the fun part, and that's what you can't wait to get to the NFL and do. The players are awesome, coaches are great and I'm just excited to be here."
After being selected with the 12th-overall pick in April's draft, Nix spent the first six weeks of his NFL career splitting reps with Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson in the initial stages of the Broncos' quarterback competition. Nix, who completed an NCAA record 77.4 percent of his passes last season at Oregon and was named the 2023 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, showed signs of promise during the Broncos' offseason program.
"He's further along than most," Head Coach Sean Payton said on May 23. "We're talking about a player who has played 61 [college] games. He's extremely smart. He's picked it up very quickly."
A week later, Payton noted that Nix was "throwing the ball extremely well" in practice.
As Nix reflected on his initial adjustment to a pro system, he pointed to his college career — which featured two schools and multiple offensive coordinators — for preparing him for the transition.
"It's just football," Nix said in mid-June. "Some moments I struggle, sometimes I feel like I'm excelling. It's just a happy medium of still feeling like a rookie and everything still feeling new. It's just repetition. It's just going over everything many times, and it's finding ways to connect it with my brain and what I've done in the past. But I think the overall experiences and the knowledge that I have playing in many systems and many offenses and on many teams with many players, I think that's just all going into helping make the transition better."
Entering his first training camp, Nix said perhaps the "toughest question" he'll need to answer will be how to avoid mistakes without playing too conservatively. His approach to that challenge, he said, will be to make quick decisions and avoid the errors that turn out to be critical.
"I think it comes down to you're never going to avoid mistakes," Nix said. "So, you might as well go out there and play fast and do the best you can to avoid them and be smart. But, I mean, you're going to make mistakes every time. [The] big thing is minimizing them and making them small mistakes. So the mistake is … you messed up on a drop or getting the right read or maybe took a wrong step, but the play was efficient. You got it done. I think [those are] the better mistakes that you can learn from. And, obviously, the catastrophes you want to stay away from. But that's part of playing the position."
As Nix looks to learn how to approach the position at the NFL level and prepare for a potential starting role, he pointed to the benefit of being able to learn from Stidham and Wilson as the three players compete for the Broncos' starting job.
"It's already here, and it started I guess the moment we knew we were all going to be on the same team," Nix said of the competition. "But I have great respect for those guys and we're competing at a very high level, but it's very respectful competition. I think we all want each other to succeed. We all know that we've come from different paths and had to overcome different adversities, and that's kind of what connects us in that. We're all helping each other, and it's been great to learn from those guys and experience some things that they've experienced.
"And I think honestly, my job as a rookie is to soak up everything I can, especially from those guys. You know, Zach's played a lot and Stidham's played a lot of years. And so they've got — between the two — different situations, but a lot of knowledge, so that's what I'm excited to continue to learn in training camp. I think it's just overall healthy competition, a good competition and I think we're all going to be better coming out of it."
And as the competition is set to heat up as training camp and preseason begin, Nix said he's approaching the opportunity with an understanding of its importance — and a recognition to focus on what's important.
"It's huge, and this opportunity is obviously not just handed out," Nix said. "So it's a special moment and one that I definitely want to take advantage of and not take for granted and be ready for, but one that I'm also not going to just be so eager and be so gung ho that I go overboard on it.
"It goes back to the fine line of just acknowledging where you are, who you're around and what situation you're in, and doing the best you can. I know that the best from all of us is going to be good enough, and the best is going to put our team in the best chance [to win]."
