Terry Bradshaw explains how Bo Nix surprised even Sean Payton

NEW ORLEANS — Sean Payton had high hopes for Bo Nix from the moment he led him through the paces of an individual audition at the University of Oregon last March.

But as Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw learned during Super Bowl week, what Nix displayed surprised even the head coach himself.

Bradshaw, who is part of the broadcast team covering Super Bowl LIX, said he chatted with Payton, his former Fox Sports co-worker on Thursday morning. And it was inevitable that Nix would arise in a conversation between the longtime coach and the Hall-of-Fame, two-time-Super-Bowl-MVP-winning quarterback.

“He loves him,” Bradshaw said.

That wasn’t a surprise; Payton’s affection for his young quarterback is obvious. But as Bradshaw learned from conversing with Payton, what Nix is actually exceeded what the coach thought.

“He’s faster than he thought he was,” Bradshaw said. “Stronger than he thought he was. Bigger than he thought he was. Got an arm strength bigger than he thought it was.”

But further, Nix has “poise,” Bradshaw said, something that was obvious when the then-rookie led the Broncos on what was set to be a game-winning drive at Kansas City in Week 10 until Leo Chenal burst through and blocked Wil Lutz’s field-goal attempt.

“Poise. The key to all these quarterbacks, these young kids is poise. Even when they get their ass knocked off,” Bradshaw said. “You look at [Jayden] Daniels in Washington, how cool is that kid? Getting his ass knocked off him. Boom, boom. So these, these young quarterbacks that are successful are with good coordinators.”

A good play-caller with a young quarterback can bring out that poise, and Bradshaw cited passers such as Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert as examples.

“So, they have that special thing where pressure doesn’t bother them,” Bradshaw said. “And if you can be calm amongst the storm, then your brain can function. You can see things clearly. If you’re in the panic mode, then you don’t see anything; you see blue. And so all these young kids, and Bo Nix [have it].”

And then it became a matter of being with the right coach and finding the right fit. Enter Payton and the Broncos.

“I knew if Sean drafted him … Sean knew he could coach this kid,” Bradshaw said. “So when Sean drafted him, I thought, ‘Oh boy, that’s good. That’s going to be good.’

“And it sure enough was.”

Related

Former Broncos starting cornerback gets another shot with BrownsESPN: ‘Don’t be surprised’ if a slow Broncos start leads to Payton calling playsBracing for who gets ranked ahead of Bo Nix on the NFL’s Top 100For Broncos running back RJ Harvey, second-year improvement starts with film studyReport: Broncos ‘likely’ bringing back coach after charges were droppedBroncos QB Bo Nix moves up NFL Top 100 list, cracks top-60