Drew Brees praises Bo Nix, says he’s got ‘all the tools’

Drew Brees and Sean Payton were one of the best quarterback-head coach duos in the NFL for 15 years as they led a Saints offense that was consistently ranked among the top units in the league. Now it’s time for Payton to do the exact same thing with a new quarterback on the Denver Broncos, Bo Nix.

Many people have drawn comparisons between Brees and Nix because of their ability to be on time in the pocket and process things quickly. Nix put together a strong rookie campaign for Payton and the Broncos, but he has a long way to go before the Brees comparisons can be validated. He’s much bigger than Brees and he’s more athletic than Brees, while his arm has work to do to catch up to the 13-time Pro Bowler.

There’s no issue with that. Brees is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. Nix is only heading into his second year. When Brees was entering his second full NFL season with the Chargers in 2003, he was nowhere near the quarterback he ended up being in the late 2010s.

That doesn’t mean that Brees doesn’t like what the 25-year-old out of Oregon is building in the Mile High City. He talked about the blossoming signal caller on “This is Football” with Kevin Clark recently.

“I love watching the Broncos. I love watching Sean. Bo Nix is a really fun quarterback to watch, I think he’s got all the traits, all the tools, great athlete, really really runs well. I don’t think he gets enough credit for how well he runs… When he takes off and runs, he gets faster as he gets 20, 30, 40 yards down the field. Big, strong athlete. Obviously great with the short [and] intermediate passing game, very accurate, gets the ball out of his hands quickly but can really push the ball down the field as well,” Brees said.

Nix ran the ball 92 times in 2024, the fifth-most among quarterbacks. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and showed that when he gets a hint of space, he has the ability to hit the afterburners.

Knowing what we know now, Bo Nix running this fast with a bad back (because he single-handedly carried the Broncos offense) is actually insane. https://t.co/ZjHsf2qsjM pic.twitter.com/rKeGZlxgjx

— 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧 (@CameronParkerPO) August 2, 2025

Remember, he had a messed up back on that play.

Now that Nix has established himself in Payton’s system and has a solid understanding of the basics, it’s time for the long-time head coach to start breaking out the complicated aspects that made the attack so lethal in New Orleans. Brees knows that digesting that will be no easy task for Nix.

“In his second year, now he’s developed a comfort level with, I think, the complexity of the Sean Payton offense. Look, Sean will make it as complicated as you can handle… Sean has all his assistants he had with the Saints… So think about the institutional knowledge from where it started to where it is now, and now Bo Nix is coming in and trying to learn this new language and get caught up,” Brees said.

Nix had two different offensive coordinators in his two years at Oregon and three different coaches serve as a the OC in his three years at Auburn. The only sense of stability he had was getting Kenny Dillingham for two seasons, one in 2019 at Auburn and one in 2022 at Oregon. Now that he finally has some sense of stability with his play caller for the first time since before the pandemic, he can establish a deeper understanding of the playbook than in years past.

“Gradually, over time, I think he’ll take more and more responsibility within the framework of the offense. The sky’s the limit for a guy like that,” Brees said.

However, Payton recently said that there isn’t more on Nix’s plate heading into this season, despite the popular belief. He doesn’t want to do too much too early, and Payton wants to run an offense that caters to his players’ skillsets the most.

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