The tell shone in the glint of Bo Nix’s teeth after the plays that didn’t connect Sunday. The veneer-white smile. The skip in his step from sideline to huddle. The second-year quarterback looked — even in rough moments — like a kid in a London sweets shop.
Before the Broncos’ first offensive snap against the Jets on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, NFL Network analyst and Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner praised Nix as a guy who “doesn’t seem to panic” on the game’s broadcast. That may be true. But Nix has also been a guy who’s often appeared frustrated early on in 2025. At others. At himself. Remember the Week 1 snap at Lucas Krull? Or the Week 2 back-and-forth with Sean Payton?
That Nix got left behind somewhere on the flight to London, after his fourth-quarter heroics in Philadelphia.
This Nix beamed at teammates after a first-down carry. This Nix actually flashed a thumbs-up after one incompletion against a New York blitz. This Nix lowered his shoulder on one carry and bowled over Jets cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr.
But this Nix was buried, quickly, under an incoherent Broncos offense that lost its identity somewhere after a quarter in London.
“We just didn’t have those same plays,” Nix said after his unit scored just three points across three quarters to finish Sunday’s 13-11 win. “We weren’t in a very good rhythm at all.
“First half, we were going quick, getting the ball to different players, spreading the ball around, getting them in certain defenses where we get softer coverage. And there, obviously, in the second half, felt kinda like the opposite. Lot of run-heavy looks, lot of loaded boxes, and then just complete lack of rhythm.”
At no point in that postgame evaluation of Denver’s offensive slump did he mention Payton. And yet Payton’s offense, which has often asked Nix to do too much in long-down situations, didn’t ask him to do much as both teams rolled in the muck Sunday. The second-year quarterback was 11 of 12 for 96 yards and a touchdown after one frame, playing with the carefree confidence of a man coming off a signature win.
For three quarters thereafter, Nix was 8 of 18 for 78 yards. He threw all of 10 balls in the second half, with one fourth-quarter crossing route to Evan Engram managing to jump-start the Broncos’ offense enough for an eventual game-winning field goal.
“Thank goodness Evan got open on his man-to-man, and then it started to switch,” Nix said. “And that drive, we were able to do just enough, get in a little bit of a rhythm, and spread the ball around enough to go get points.
“But it just kind of felt like a tale of two different halves.”
It was a tale of two different approaches from Payton. The Broncos offensive staff knows that Nix likes tempo, and has gone that route in the first quarter of two straight wins.
With Denver motoring into Jets territory late in the first quarter, Nix hurried the Broncos to the line after a short grab by Marvin Mims Jr. and ripped off a 16-yard strike up the seam to Engram. With New York’s defense still scrambling, Payton and Nix again went no-huddle. In the blink of an eye, fullback Nate Adkins ran uncontested into the end zone from the slot and Nix hit him for an early score. The well opened.
Then the well closed. Nix converted a third-down ball to Engram in an up-tempo look on the first drive of the second quarter, and the Broncos only ran no-huddle twice more across the second and third frames. The pace slowed. Late in the third quarter, facing third-and-10 from his 18-yard line, Payton sent Nix to the line to call in … a fullback draw to Adam Prentice.
The only other time the Broncos ran back-to-back no-huddle looks? Their fourth-quarter field-goal drive, when Nix hit Pat Bryant for a first down — their only scoring drive of the final three frames. Nix is now 18-of-29 passing for 183 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a 103.1 QB rating in no-huddle this season.
The Broncos’ offensive approach certainly shifted with a horde of penalties, including three on veteran offensive lineman Matt Peart, who filled in at left guard for injured starter Ben Powers. Payton, though, made clear the Broncos’ issues went deeper.
“It wasn’t just him,” Payton said of Peart. “We had a number of errors that — there’ll be a lot of us that want to clean some stuff up.”
Nix is certainly one of them, with a couple of head-scratching incompletions on third down in the second half. But the Broncos abruptly downshifted out of his comfort zone and lost a quickly coalescing offensive attack along the way.
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