Bo Nix has social media, but he does not have social media. Not installed. He has deleted all of it, he told reporters this week. He does not spend his time scrolling comments. He does not hear it.
The Broncos’ building does.
There was no deflecting that Sunday night in a Broncos locker room bursting at the seams with bellows, barks and well-earned braggadocio. A football team is in many ways a reflection of its quarterback, and these Broncos felt disrespected. National power rankings still weren’t quite taking them for real. The Broncos entered a heavyweight match against Kansas City as the underdog despite having the better record. And their quarterback’s play had spawned segments questioning whether he was holding his team back.
So after they knocked off the Chiefs 22-19 on Sunday, players buried several narratives under the turf at Empower Field and ran victory laps over them. Namely, they took up a pitchfork for Nix, who torched the Chiefs when it mattered: 24 of 37 for 295 yards.
“First off, if you’re talking (expletive) about Bo online, you’re a coward,” tight end Adam Trautman said postgame when asked about Nix’s performance. “Absolute coward. Just want to say that, and guard him a little bit.
“But, I mean, it says a lot,” Trautman continued. “He blanks it out. And we talked about it this week. We don’t care what other people think. We know what we have in the building. And we know what he’s made of. And we don’t really care what people have to say.
“So, ‘Dragonslayer69′ with a 7-Eleven slurpee in his mom’s basement,” Trautman finished, describing a theoretical username, “I don’t give a (expletive) what you have to say, right? And Bo doesn’t either.”
For 11 games, Nix has looked like a different quarterback from quarter to quarter and drive to drive. The best version of Nix has uplifted the Broncos. The worst version of Nix has been bailed out by his defense.
Against the Chiefs on Sunday, he hit another stride and never faltered. The Broncos scored just six first-half points, and Nix was plagued by drops and pass-protection breakdowns. He placed the ballgame on his shoulders in the second half: 5 for 7 for 63 yards on a third-quarter touchdown drive, two massive third-down conversions to Courtland Sutton late, and one 32-yard seed to Troy Franklin to set up the game-winning field goal.
Head coach Sean Payton put it in the simplest terms.
“He won,” Payton said. “It’s his job. He won.”
Nix has been far from perfect in 2025. He also now leads all NFL quarterbacks in game-winning drives (five). And he earned resounding levels of respect this week for how he handled a rough stretch: a 62.5 quarterback rating and a heap of criticism in Denver’s previous two wins.
“He’s the toughest dude on our team,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said postgame.
“I think, having to deal with the pressure of being a starting quarterback at such a young age and on such a successful football team, that mounts on your shoulders. And he handled it with unbelievable – I mean, one, class, but two, toughness. I mean, the way that he practiced this week was so sharp. He looked it dead in the face and said, ‘I’m going to be better.’”
The Broncos now sit in pole position in the AFC West thanks to the inevitability of Vance Joseph’s defense. Nix’s ability to adapt will be needed to take them a step further.
On Sunday, he hit on the throws that haven’t been there across the last two weeks. He layered in a 35-yard strike down the left sideline to Franklin in the third quarter, perhaps his prettiest ball of the season to a receiver he’s struggled to connect with on deep throws. He scrambled and found Sutton for a monster third-and-15 conversion to extend the Broncos’ game-winning drive, after his favorite third-down target had been held in check in such situations for weeks.
“That’s why he was the whatever pick, 12th pick,” Trautman said. “That’s why he’s the franchise quarterback, right? Like, everyone believes in him. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. And he blocks it out.”
Only Nix knows how much this amorphous social-media chatter has unnerved him. He says it hasn’t. More importantly, the Broncos believe it hasn’t. And he has built up proof, multiple times in his second season in Denver, that he’ll leap up from slumber and turn down the volume when it gets loud.
The thing Nix wasn’t scared of on Sunday? Kansas City.
“They were at the top,” Nix said, “and if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.
“Some say, if you’re scared,” he continued, “go to church.”
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