Ferris Bueller’s not getting the day off, but he’s not in hot water, either.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton on Monday reiterated what seemed clear from Sunday’s 34–18 win over Las Vegas: The heated exchange he and rookie quarterback Bo Nix had after a third-down incompletion up the sideline to Troy Franklin is rooted in respect.
In fact, Payton on Monday said he likes the fact that his 24-year-old is willing to bark back.
The quick reset: Nix threw a deep ball up the left sideline for Franklin, a fellow rookie and former Oregon teammate, and Franklin dropped it. Nix says he overthrew the pass but he was clearly upset after the play and Payton stopped him on the way off the field to tell him that he messed up, too, by flipping the play from the direction it was originally intended.
Sparks flew from there.
Payton, though, doesn’t mind that. In fact, when asked if he liked Nix’s willingness to fire back, the coach quickly responded, “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
“All good. It’s the heat of the moment, it’s the game, it’s competitive, he’s fiery,” Payton continued. “Look, we’re in the business of passion. We’re looking for passion and we’re looking for people with passion for the game. Not other things.
“It’s so important to him. Again, I loved his response and, shoot, we’re on to the next play. It’s nothing.”
What followed, of course, was something. Nix led touchdown drives on the Broncos’ next two possessions to start the fourth quarter and accounted for three second-half scores overall.
“He played well,” Payton said. “Kept his feet, went through his progressions, threw the ball well. Got it down the field, took the underneath throws, handled the two-minute again. That’s happened a number of times now where we’ve been able to get some points at the end of the half.
“Had good command of what we were doing. I was pleased.”
Nix heated up as the game went along. He had 60 of his 105 first-half yards in the final four minutes of the first half — first a drive that moved the Broncos out of the shadow of their own goal line and then a quick two-minute drive that set up a Wil Lutz field goal for a 13–10 lead going into halftime.
Then when the offense capitalized on short fields in the second half, it translated to an efficient line for Nix at 19-of-27 passing for 206 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers. He was sacked three times but he hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 2 and has now gone 97 straight dropbacks without turning the ball over.
“He’s playing with confidence and every week his feet make a couple of plays for us that are important,” Payton said. “And I keep getting back to, I think there were two sacks yesterday but he’s hard to sack. When he plays, you’re not on the cusp of a minus play. He’s got real good command of what he’s doing and I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: We’ve got to keep painting the right picture around him.”
Payton also thinks Nix is seeing the picture more clearly as he gets exposed to the complexities of NFL defenses more and more times.
“I think overall he’s understanding the game better and better relative to the amount of personnel groupings, for instance, that he sees defensively,” Payton said. “… It’s much different than when the player’s in college and he might go a whole game where he sees dime defense and maybe a few changeups. He’s doing a real good job of understanding his protections and where he’s short.”
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