It has only been just over 15 months since Denver hired Sean Payton to rebuild the Broncos roster and the veteran head coach has done exactly that. After clearing out several big name players over the last 12 months including Russell Wilson, Jerry Jeudy and Justin Simmons, we can expect to see a very different Broncos roster take the field in 2024.
One area where Payton has been active is the quarterback position. The Broncos added 2021 No. 2 overall draft pick Zach Wilson in a trade with the New York Jets, and followed that up by drafting Oregon’s highly touted quarterback Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick in this year’s draft.
Nix is an exciting prospect and has plenty of college experience under his belt. Last month, Denver’s general manager George Paton revealed that Payton had no doubts about using the team’s first round pick on the 24-year-old signal caller.
“He made 10, 15 throws, and Sean came up to me and said, ‘This is the guy,'” said Paton.
Nix is now at the team’s rookie camp and the head coach is not giving up too much about the quarterbacks performances going into the season. He did reveal one thing that surprised him.
“It’s been exactly what we saw,” said Payton. “The only thing I can think about that was a little bit of a surprise was when we went to work him out privately and stood around him, he was bigger than I expected. But nothing in the last two days. He’s doing well.”
Broncos HC Sean Payton says Bo Nix is ‘bigger than I expected’ 👀
“The only thing I can think about that was a little bit of a surprise was when we went to work him out privately and stood around him, he was bigger than I expected. But nothing in the last two days. He’s doing… pic.twitter.com/dMLqXYpGoh
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 14, 2024
Nix is listed as 6-2, 214 pounds on his NFL.com draft profile, but may have looked smaller to Sean Payton when he was analyzing film.
With nine-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson now with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it remains unclear who will be the starter for the Broncos next season. Along with Nix and Wilson, the team also has Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci on the roster.
