Bo Nix has won four of his first six games this season, but the Denver Broncos’ quarterback is getting very little credit for those victories. His passing numbers have dropped sharply. Never mind that Denver’s offense has struggled to move the ball. A particularly ugly performance against Seattle has now turned Nix into one of the NFL’s favorite targets for memes. Even former players have joined the criticism. Julian Edelman, however, is not ready to give up on the 26-year-old quarterback.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“Can we stop beating down my kid?” he asked, replying to show’s co-producer Jack McCarthy’s criticism of Nix. The whole back-and-forth between Rob Gronkowski, Edelman, and McCarthy grew tense by the minute on the Gronk and Jules Show.
McCarthy explained that Nix is averaging just 5.6 yards per pass attempt. For comparison, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is averaging 8.3 yards per pass attempt. So, Nix’s figure inspired humorous comparisons with everyday distances.
According to a meme compilation, it would take Nix 611 throws to cover the length of the Golden Gate Bridge. Another comparison that Jack mentioned suggested Nix would need seven throws to cover an NBA basketball court. The jokes were absurd enough to get a reaction from the hosts, but Edelman was more concerned about the quarterback taking another beating over his statistics.
“Let my guy go through a bit of adversity,” Edelman said. ” Come out of this, Bo. Come out of this, Bo. Keep proving people wrong, Bo.”
Rob Gronkowski joined the exchange, joking that Nix now had another person to silence. “If you got to prove someone wrong, you got to prove Jack wrong here,” Gronkowski told him.
The discussion was lighthearted, although the criticism behind it was anything but imaginary. Nix has been struggling to push the ball downfield, and the Broncos have increasingly relied on their defense to survive games.
Against Seattle on October 15, Nix completed 17 of 27 passes for 107 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. His longest pass was for just 16 yards, and he averaged 4.0 passing yards per attempt.
Although Denver won 17-14 in overtime, the Broncos punted on all six of their second-half possessions and needed Ja’Quan McMillian’s overtime interception to set up Wil Lutz’s winning field goal.
Nix had thrown for just 123 yards against the Chargers the previous week. In the Week 4 loss to the 49ers, he managed 214 yards. In six games, Nix has completed 114 of his 189 pass attempts for 1,049 yards and six touchdowns.
That is a worrying stretch for a quarterback whose team has ambitions beyond simply making the playoffs. While Nix was already taking plenty of heat online, Ryan Fitzpatrick had been even tougher on him after Denver beat Seattle.
On Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football postgame show, the former NFL QB criticized Nix’s decisions and questioned how hard he was willing to compete.
“I’m glad (the Broncos) scored the two touchdowns in the first half, but they were in four-minute mode when the second half started,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was really frustrating to watch. And part of it for me is Bo Nix is not playing competitively. It’s almost disrespectful to the quarterback position how he’s playing football right now.”
In the previous two seasons, Nix had played exceptionally well. He led the Broncos to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 as a rookie. Nix then followed it with a 14-3 record as the Broncos made it to the AFC Championship Game.
In truth, Denver has a weak run game this season, and its receivers have struggled to shake loose from coverages. Sean Payton took back the play-calling, but the offense is still lacking big gains.
Seattle saw little to worry about from the run game, while Nix spent most of the afternoon throwing short passes that rarely put the defense under pressure. Of course, Nix has made mistakes and played too cautiously at times.
But Denver’s problems go beyond the quarterback, with the offense giving him little help. Edelman was not saying Nix had played well. His point was that a few bad decisions should not lead people to write off the quarterback altogether.