Through two preseason games, Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix looks the part, and he's making the team look like geniuses after cutting Russell Wilson. The Broncos were getting bashed left and right for their decisions to bench and then cut Russell Wilson a few months ago. However, the team has played a clear effort to bring in and develop a rookie QB.
Denver took Bo Nix at pick 12 in the 2024 NFL Draft, and thus far, he's made Denver look like geniuses. On the flip side of this is the Pittsburgh Steelers, who since signed Russell Wilson to a minimum deal and got the Wilson experience first-hand in their depressing preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, where Wilson took three sacks and could not muster a single scoring drive.
He played five series and led the Steelers to zero points. Meanwhile, Broncos head coach Sean Payton has brought a QB in who can run his offense the way he likes it, and while Nix has done this against backups at points, his preseason compared to Russell Wilson's preseason is making the Denver Broncos look like the smart guys in the room.
Many people did not like the Broncos taking Nix as high as they did, but they seemed to have Nix himself very on their own board, and Sean Payton even went as far as trying to manufacture interest in JJ McCarthy, which allowed Nix to fall into their laps at pick 12 back in April.
Through two preseason games, Bo Nix has gone 23/30 for 205 yards and two touchdowns. What may be the most encouraging part of this is that if you watched Nix in Weeks 1 and 2, you could clearly see the improvement in their win against the Green Bay Packers. It doesn't matter that Nix isn't the best athlete or only has an average arm.
Sean Payton clearly does not need that from his QBs, but what we've seen is Nix efficiently run the offense the way Payton wants, and at this point, it's hard to not think of the Denver Broncos as being a surprise team in the 2024 NFL Season.