How does Bo Nix change the AFC West race for the Denver Broncos?

The Kansas City Chiefs have ruled the AFC West over the last eight seasons and aiming to win their ninth straight division title in 2024. Last year wasn't as much of a blowout in the divisional race as past years had been with a few teams remaining in the mix near the end of the regular season.

One of those teams still in the mix was the Denver Broncos, who, before the Chiefs, used to own the AFC West themselves. The Broncos won five straight division titles from 2011 to 2015, mostly thanks to having Peyton Manning quarterbacking their offense.

Once Manning retired, the Broncos had to find a new quarterback to lead the charge on offense and they've struggled to find someone who can win games for them. The team swung for the fences two years ago by trading for Russell Wilson but that turned out to be a terrible move for them.

One year into the Wilson experiment, the Broncos made another massive trade and added Sean Payton as their head coach. To his credit, Payton made the Broncos look better in 2023, leading them to an 8-9 record. He moved on from Wilson in the offseason and spent the Broncos' first-round pick on Oregon's Bo Nix, a selection that was highly criticized at the time.

Well, Nix has played well in the Broncos' first two preseason games and has won the starting job in Denver. This means that the Chiefs will be seeing a new face twice this year and potentially for years to come.

What did draft pundits say about Bo Nix?

Now that Nix is going to be the guy in Denver, it's time to look back and see what the draft experts were saying about him before the draft occurred. Did they seem high on the guy? What were his strengths and weaknesses? Let's get to know Nix a little better.

Bleacher Report's draft profile on Nix noted that he's a good athlete and that he was "Consistent, reliable quick game operator. Ball comes out quickly and accurately." They also claimed a weakness for Nix was a "Below-average ability to find answers within structure when first read is taken away."

Ian Cummings of Pro Football Network said one of Nix's strengths was that he "Demands respect as a runner and knows how to use his athleticism to open windows." A weakness of Nix's that Cummings pointed out was that his arm strength wasn't elite, noting, "Arm strength, while great, falls short of the quantifiably elite mark," and another weakness was that he "Doesn’t force throws but sometimes holds the ball too long and works into a corner."

PFF did a nice write-up on Nix before the draft and here was what they had said about the Oregon signal-caller: "Nix's experience manifests in the form of pre-snap reads, play under pressure and avoiding negatives. His footwork needs to be more disciplined, and he will take some time to really read progressions better in the NFL, but he is a quarterback with starting-caliber tools in his arm and his legs with added out-of-structure playmaking."

A big plus for Nix when entering the draft was how much starting experience he accrued during his time at both Auburn and Oregon. This is something that Natalie Miller of Draft Wire pointed to when listing Nix's strengths ahead of the draft.

Miller was another draft pundit who alluded to Nix struggling when his first read was taken away, something that Payton is hoping he can fix. Miller also mentioned that Nix needs to work on his footwork. "Nix has struggled with inconsistent footwork and accuracy throughout his college career, and it’s fair to question if his completion marks are more because of the amount of screen passes Oregon uses and if Nix can operate outside of that system as a consistent passer."

As for whether or not Chiefs fans should be worried about Nix, the truth is that we don't know enough about the guy yet. He's played in two preseason games, and while he performed well there, preseason is nothing like the regular season. He was playing against backups and third-stringers, so we'll see how well he does when he's playing against starters and takes some big hits as a pro.

If Nix pans out though, the AFC West will have him, Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert for the foreseeable future.