What would it mean if Bo Nix is a Broncos team captain?
Sep 4, 2024, 12:05 AM
Bo Nix showed leadership qualities in an NFL environment even before Sean Payton named him the team’s Week 1 starting quarterback. He earned the respect of teammates, not just for his command of the offense, but how he fit into the locker room. He threaded the needle of showing deference to veterans while displaying a command and presence well beyond his rookie status.
“He’s like 30, already. We were in the same high-school class,” joked linebacker Alex Singleton, who is, in fact, six years older than Nix.
But behind every joke is an element of truth.
“He is mature. I talk to him a ton and just try to pick his brain about stuff, how he sees things,” Singleton said. “He’s really honest with himself, with his game, and then just how he sees everything.”
“Bo is a great dude. He’s a great guy to hang out with, great guy to have a conversation with. I think he’s fit in unbelievably well,” said Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey. “And I think he has come in and be authentically himself, and I think that’s all you can ask for for him — and for us.”
What’s more, Nix realizes that such presence has to be something you always show.
“I think how you do anything is how you do everything,” he said. “So it’s kind of an all-the-time thing. You have a lot of responsibility and you gotta act accordingly.”
Nix gets it. He’s focused on doing, not saying. And what he’s done is act like what a team would expect of a captain.
And in the current environment, the stars could be aligning for him to immediately don the captain’s “C” patch.
THE NOTION OF A ROOKIE QB AS TEAM CAPTAIN IS A RECENT THING
Broncos coach Sean Payton has never started a season with a rookie team captain, let alone one at quarterback.
And it wasn’t that long ago that rookie quarterbacks wearing the “C” patch introduced by the NFL in 2007 were rarities. In fact, from 2007 through 2019, none of the rookie quarterbacks who started Week 1 were captains.
But since 2020, the landscape has changed. From 2020 through 2023, six of seven Week 1 rookie starting quarterbacks — including current Broncos backup Zach Wilson — opened the season as team captains. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Indianapolis’ Anthony Richardson, Carolina’s Bryce Young and Houston’s C.J. Stroud all were captains from the jump. The only exception to this trend since 2023 was New England’s Mac Jones in 2021.
The Washington Commanders had not announced their captains as of Tuesday night, so the status of Jayden Daniels in this regard is in limbo. But Chicago already named Caleb Williams a team captain. Thus, the trend is poised to continue.
There was a time when naming Bo Nix a captain would have arched eyebrows. But truth be told, it’s now what is expected in an environment in which rookie quarterbacks are expected to find some level of success while they learn on the fly.
And IF BO NIX IS A CAPTAIN, IT WOULD BE A BRONCOS RARITY
And a rarity to the point where it is believed that Nix would be the first Broncos rookie at any position to begin the season as a team captain since “The Franchise” himself, Floyd Little, did so in 1967.
Like Nix does today, Little arrived in Denver to join a team beset by years of defeat. Denver had seven-straight seasons without a winning campaign when Little arrived, the same as the Broncos do today as Nix prepares to start. Of course, those Broncos would have six more losing seasons before finally breaking through in 1973; if these Broncos have a similar run in front of them, neither Nix nor Payton would likely be with the club to see it out of the darkness.
The expectations — and the acceptable timeline — are different today than they were a half-century ago.
We’ll find out this week if Bo Nix is a Broncos captain. By actions, deeds and league-wide trends, giving him that distinction, even as a rookie, makes sense.
