Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.
What’s your take on the lack of love for Bo Nix for Season 2? I feel like it’s been underplayed what a rare rookie season this guy had. Maybe it’s the Jayden Daniels effect and how Washington transformed. Maybe it’s that so many pundits thought Nix wasn’t a first-round talent and don’t want to acknowledge that Payton was right. I just don’t know how you can look at what Nix did after those first four games finding his footing and not see more to come.
David, Charlotte, N.C.
Hey David, thanks for writing and for getting us going this week. I wonder if your view about Nix is a commonly held one. Not saying you’re wrong, just that I haven’t got the sense this offseason. Maybe that means I’m not giving Nix enough love, too?
There could be a couple of things at play here. One is that, you’re right, Jayden Daniels had such a terrific rookie season that he gets talked about more. Caleb Williams is obviously a big story because he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 and the Bears hired Ben Johnson as their head coach. In fact, you could rightly say that Daniels turned into a superstar, and the other four rookie quarterbacks heading into Year 2 all have more drama/turnover/big storylines than Nix and the Broncos. It’s just kind of, if not quiet, then at least stable in Denver. That’s not a recipe for spinning the ratings wheel on ESPN or NFL Network, but I bet the Broncos are fine with it.
Another element: There are just so many terrific quarterbacks in the AFC. Nix could have a great second season and slot in behind, what, five guys at least? We run through the list a lot, but it’s hard to wrap your mind around it still: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson own five of the league’s past seven MVPs (new/very old Pittsburgh QB Aaron Rodgers has the other two). Joe Burrow belongs with that first trio but hasn’t won an MVP… yet. Then there’s Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud, Rodgers, etc. Nix did some pretty rare things as a rookie, but how strong is the argument to put him ahead of anybody on that list besides the 41-year-old right now?
That said, Nix and the Broncos are confident for good reason. He generated three touchdowns in his first four games as a rookie and then 30 (28 passing, two rushing) over Denver’s final 13 games. Nix turned the ball over just eight times and was sacked 20 times in those final 13 games. Plus, he, Payton and pretty much everyone else in the building express extreme confidence that, as you suggested, Nix is just getting started.
Final thought on this: It’s possible that if Nix is being under-hyped this offseason, it’s because the Broncos are a complete team. The defense gets a lot of love and rightfully so. The offensive line should be one of the best units in football. They’ve added playmaking and youth at running back and tight end. Nix shouldn’t have to do everything. That’s a good thing and it’s part of the reason the Broncos are widely expected to be right back in the playoff picture this fall.
Hello from Finland! I’m back! Last season, the Broncos had Donald Parham as a TE, a big guy. Caleb Lohner is quite big, too. Is there a continuum regarding the type of player they’re looking for? Maybe especially red zone in mind?
Jude, Lahti, Finland
Jude! Thanks for writing and good question. There’s like a 21 out of 24 chance you’ll read this in the daylight, considering we’re just about to the summer solstice. Checked out of curiosity and Thursday’s sunrise and sunset times for Lahti are 3:40 a.m. and 10:56 p.m., respectively. That, of course, has nothing to do with Donald Parham, but it is cool.
It was sort of interesting last year that the Broncos never used Parham off the practice squad, even though he’s 6-foot-8 with some track record as a red zone guy in the NFL and given Denver’s overall lack of production at tight end. Seems like they just got in a pretty good rhythm with what they had offensively, and there was no real need to disrupt the flow.
Lohner, the rookie seventh-round pick and former hooper out of Utah, is tall but not Parham tall. And yeah, there’s definitely something to that conversation. It’s like anything: If you don’t have something on your roster, you’re going to look for it. And if you’re looking for it in lower-probability ways — late-round picks, the bargain free agent aisle, etc. — you’re going to be betting on traits rather than acquiring a sure thing.
Lohner is a traits-based bet. He’s big, athletic and has the basketball skillset that sometimes translates well to the NFL. The Broncos are betting they can help refine his football skills into a useful player, not just in the red zone. At the same time, though, you don’t necessarily have to have that physical prowess in order to be dynamic in the red zone. Evan Engram, for example, isn’t nearly as tall as Lohner, but he’s going to help the Broncos in that area. Brock Bowers in Las Vegas and Sam LaPorta in Detroit aren’t the biggest tight ends out there, but they’re dynamite. True “Jokers,” to use Payton’s parlance.
Several times since late March, this one quote from George Paton at the owners meetings in Florida has come to mind. It’s in the ballpark for this question, so here it is. He was asked about being patient with players as they develop and what he looks for in terms of when to bet that patience will pay off. He used Nik Bonitto as an example. Bonitto had 1.5 sacks as a rookie, 8.5 in Year 2 and then really broke out in Year 3 last fall.
“When you look at the day-to-day, you look at the practice and you look at the skillset, is there one trait? What’s the dominant trait? Nik Bonitto, man, we knew he had a dominant trait. When was it going to click? When was the light going to turn on? So, you can see it in practice. You can see it by how they are day-to-day and how they are in the weight room and in the conditioning drills.
“Nik, he always worked hard. You felt like it would come. He got his opportunity and shoot, we traded a good player away in Baron Browning because we could see Nik in practice with what he was doing. So you just look for those little traits. It’s hard to give up on a player like that.”
Do you think the Broncos have enough talent and depth on the roster to overcome injuries and still push for a Super Bowl victory? And which player(s) would derail their season outside of Bo Nix or Pat Surtain II?
Larry Emanuel, Savannah, Ga.
Hey Larry, great question and one we’ll have a better feel for by the end of training camp.
At this point, it’s fair to say that the Broncos look like they’ve got better overall roster depth than they’ve had in recent years. Now, there comes a point where nobody can withstand a big run of injuries. Look at San Francisco last year. If you get hit with that kind of wipeout injury bug, at some point your options for recourse dry up.
Denver, though, has what looks like pretty solid depth at a lot of positions. They’ve fortified at inside linebacker and safety, though an injury at either spot could still cause issues. They’ve got good rotational depth on the edge and defensive line, but major missed time from any of Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Zach Allen or John Franklin-Myers would still sting. Can you cover it for two weeks? Sure. Can you cover it for 10? Much tougher. Obviously, teams will happily live with that reality because it means you’ve got really good players.
Losing Allen or JFM for an extended period would really hurt. They’re not only terrific players in their own right, but they make each other better and they make life easier on D.J. Jones and on the edge rushers. Also, we saw Alex Palczewski hold up pretty well in Mike McGlinchey’s absence last fall, but then he got hurt, too. If either McGlinchey or left tackle Garett Bolles went down, Denver would have options with ‘Palcho,’ Matt Peart or Frank Crum, but it’s fair to call it an open question just how comfortable that would feel if it’s longer than a couple of games.
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