Sean Payton says Bo Nix will be ‘measured by wins’ after latest snub

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton found himself having to defend Bo Nix on Wednesday.

Again.

Nix was left off ESPN’s projected top-100 players of the 2026 NFL season, yet another snub in what’s been an offseason full of them. 16 quarterbacks made the list, but Nix was nowhere to be found.

After practice wrapped up, Sean Payton was asked how Nix can start to shift those narratives. He gave a long and thoughtful answer.

“There’s two things I think can happen. You can be pre-determined based on how you saw him coming out and slow to move off of your draft opinion, which is very normal,” Payton said.

Nix was the sixth QB taken in the first-round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He’s outperformed them all through two seasons. But Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams and Drake Maye all cracked ESPN’s top-100 while Nix did not.

Sean Payton also brought up people not watching enough of Nix and the Broncos play football.

“Often times, you’re not exposed to certain players based on television. It’s the one cool thing about our sport, though, you could argue any position. Top-10, all of those discussions. And generally time will give you those answers. We love what we’re seeing,” Payton said.

And it’d be hard not to love Nix through two seasons in orange and blue. He’s led the Broncos to the playoffs in both campaigns and guided a 14-3 effort a year ago, resulting in the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.

“They’re measured by wins. They’re measured by certain things. And ultimately that’s how history will be written, about any of them, the quarterbacks specifically,” Sean Payton said.

History will indeed settle these arguments, not a list put together by 12 people who work for ESPN.

When and if Nix hoists his first Lombardi Trophy, it’ll go a long way towards quieting the haters.

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