Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix struggled in his NFL debut — the numbers and eye test attest to that fact.
Nix’s lowlights included poor footwork, inaccurate passes and bad decisions. After Sunday’s 26-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Broncos coach Sean Payton pointed out that Nix needed more support from his teammates in Week 1.
Speaking to media members during a conference call on Monday, Payton acknowledged Nix’s room for improvement while also reiterating Sunday’s message.
“I just watched the play where he climbs the pocket,” Payton said. “There were some bloody looks and he’s off schedule, thrown off the wrong foot, but I would say doing what he has to on that play. In other words, there’s a dagger opened up, but we’re not good in protection. Certainly, when we watched this game tape and evaluate the cue, there’s a number of things that we’ll get cleaned up and corrected, but man, I said it yesterday [and] I’ll say it again. One of the key things that was important in this game is winning the run game battle, and we weren’t able to do that. We struggled and in that inefficiency on first and second down, it was one of our keys to victory and we were anything but.”
Payton noted that there are areas of Nix’s game that need to be “cleaned up,” but his overall point remains that other teammates need to step up.
“I didn’t see — certainly like I saw a three step and a hitch instead of a five and a hitch on a certain play,” Payton said. “We’ll get that cleaned up, but overall, when he’s climbing a pocket, or he’s on the move extending a play, there are times where the ball’s going to get away from you. My bigger concern today, No. 1, the first half provided that game early was there a little bit for the taking.
“We didn’t take advantage of the field position, the interception by Alex [Singleton]. We’re sitting there in a perfect position to really go up and we don’t take advantage of the field position there. Our red-zone offense wasn’t nearly as good as it needed to be, and we did have some drops early on. I think when I watch this tape offensively, we need to be better around him, and we will be.”
Nix and his teammates will get their first opportunity to bounce back when the Broncos host the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2.
