It was a battle of rookies to kick off the week on Thursday Night Football as the Denver Broncos and Bo Nix took on the New Orleans Saints and Spencer Rattler in just his second start of the season. Denver ultimately came away with a blowout win, but the play of the quarterbacks on both sides of the field was concerning all night long.
Bo Nix somehow over threw and under threw a wide open receiver on the same play pic.twitter.com/sofYKSntVF
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) October 18, 2024
Denver did a good job controlling the time of possession and really limiting Rattler, but the Broncos found little success with their own rookie quarterback. Nix was erratic as a passer for most of the game, sometimes hitting a nice play and other times missing wide-open throws that could have made this an even bigger lead. On the night, Nix finished with 16 completions on 26 attempts, for 164 passing yards, and no touchdowns. Nix did look explosive on the ground once again, however, racking up 75 rush yards in a dominant run game effort.
It’s a concerning trend that we have seen so far out of Nix and the Broncos and it is going to be hard to continue to put up wins in spite of your own quarterback’s arm talent. Nix does show some encouraging signs especially when extending the play and finding an outlet, but that too remains inconsistent in his ability to hit his target outside the pocket with messy footwork. If anyone can quickly fix up a rookie quarterback, it’s Sean Payton, but he will need to figure out a way to do that fast if they want to keep up with the Chargers and Chiefs in the same division.
