Sean Payton: Bo Nix is “much further along” with mandatory minicamp underway

Sean Payton is liking what he's seeing from his second-year quarterback Bo Nix as the Broncos offseason carries on, saying that the young arm is "much further along" than others

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Jun 10, 2025, 2:13 PM Updated: 2:16 pm

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The combination of Sean Payton and Bo Nix only got stronger for the Denver Broncos at the 2024 season carried on and Nix got more experience under his belt as he helped lead the Denver Broncos to the franchise’s first playoff berth in nine years. While making the playoffs was a big milestone to check off, it’s not the end goal for this Broncos squad, but they need their quarterback to keep developing into a young star.

When asked about his second-year quarterback after Broncos practice on Tuesday, Payton had some good things to say that should get Broncos fans excited for the offense this upcoming season.

“I don’t want to compare [Nix] to the others cause he’s different,” Payton said. “I see him much further along right now with what we’re doing, taking a play into the huddle real quick, and I see him making real good decisions. I can’t tell you about the others.”

When asked about how the 25-year-old looks in the red zone, Payton talked about how he liked what he saw from his quarterback.

“He was outstanding,” Payton said. “The significance of the run game across the 15 [yard line], you can’t understate. So, all of that, we look at in the offseason, self-scout, what do we want to add, what do we want to remove, what can we do better? I think his performance in that area will improve as we do as a unit.”

Denver had the ninth-best red zone touchdown-scoring percentage in the NFL in 2020 at 61%, with plenty of room for improvement. Nix had the sixth-most red zone passing touchdowns and the eighth-highest red zone completion percentage among quarterbacks with at least 15 attempts (64.71%). With the recent signing of J.K. Dobbins and the showcase that rookie RJ Harvey has been putting on at camp, Denver is poised to make a leap with the rushing attack, which will open more lanes for Nix and the pass game.

That mark was also the best in the AFC West, with the Chargers being the 19th-best red zone team in the league, Kansas City the 21st-best and Las Vegas the 26th-best.

Nix has a ton of experience under his belt as a quarterback, but 18 games at the NFL level is not enough, and he just needs time to continue growing. His youth prompted former Broncos Pro Bowler Phillip Lindsay to say that it’s not his team yet, but it will be in due time.

Of the 18 games Nix started as a rookie a season ago, he threw for at least 250 yards in six of them, all of which came in Week 8 or later. He didn’t have the juice right away for Denver, but he showed his ability to be a sponge and grow as the season went on.

When talking about the “others,” Payton didn’t specify whether he was comparing Nix to the other quarterbacks in the room, his rookie self, or possibly the great Drew Brees, who was just two years older than Nix during his first season with Payton as his head coach.

Recapping the first day of mandatory minicamp, Payton said that he liked the team’s energy and thought the players handled the warm weather well. There was “a lot of red zone work” and longer meeting times at Tuesday’s practice compared to the work done at OTAs the previous few weeks.

The Broncos are scheduled to practice again on Wednesday and Thursday before parting for a period of time to enjoy the summer before training camp and the grind of the NFL season truly kicks off.