Bo Nix reveals what Peyton Manning texts him after Broncos games

Peyton Manning doesn’t send Bo Nix game plans after Broncos games. Mostly, he sends pep talks.

“Usually for him, it’s either keep your head up, keep going back to work, or great game, y’all fought hard, whatever,” the Denver Broncos quarterback said after practice Wednesday. “It’s usually those kind of congratulations texts, or the keep-your-head-up type of text.”

Nix was asked about the texts two days after Eli Manning said on ESPN2’s “ManningCast” that his brother texts Nix and coach Sean Payton after Broncos games. Payton was a guest on Monday’s broadcast. He joked that he deletes a lot of the texts he gets but never deletes Peyton’s.

Nix said Manning doesn’t try to coach from a distance — that the Hall of Famer isn’t in Denver’s meetings and doesn’t know the game plan, so he stays away from X’s and O’s.

“He understands as well as I do that there’s so many things that goes into it that he doesn’t understand that he wouldn’t be able to discuss,” Nix said.

Nix said he has gone to Manning with bigger-picture questions, though.

“I’ve referred to him on, what do you do in this situation? What do you do in that situation? What helped you in a situation like this?” Nix said. “And that’s where somebody like Peyton comes in really helpful. And for a guy like that to be available to help is really cool.”

Manning is a Broncos legend, but nobody outranks Mom. Her advice just doesn’t land quite like No. 18’s.

“My mom all the time, she’s like, ‘Well, y’all should have done this, y’all should have done that,'” Nix said. “I’m like, ‘Mom, you have no idea. Don’t even start.'”

Nix said outsiders, including family, don’t see the meetings or know the plays Denver puts in. For life advice, he will turn to “older, more mature people.” For football, he goes to the people inside the building.

“When it comes to X’s and O’s, it’s all about our coaches and our players,” he said.

Nix went on to talk about tuning out the noise, which has grown louder since Sunday’s 24-14 loss to San Francisco dropped Denver to 2-2. The quarterback knows he could be playing better and isn’t dodging it.

“There’s never been a game that I’ve played that I didn’t want to have a couple back,” he said. “You could play out of your mind and I’ll still go home thinking about one or two plays that just are driving me crazy. So it’s sort of a never-satisfied game.”

That’s when Manning’s texts help most.

“It’s always exciting to hear from guys like that, week in and week out,” Nix said, “because they’ve been through it.”

The Broncos face the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

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