The most encouraging thing, to Courtland Sutton, was that Bo Nix didn’t change one bit when he pulled into Dove Valley this past week.
The world hadn’t burned just yet. And Nix didn’t act like it had. He prepared how he always prepares, Sutton said Monday, after a couple of heartbreaking losses and a confounding start to 2025.
“There was no frustration,” Sutton told reporters Monday night. “There was no lack of focus. It was just — he was Bo Nix.”
The Bo Nix of Monday night’s 28-3 win over the Bengals, though, played quite a bit differently than the Nix of Week 3’s loss to the Chargers. He played decisively. He stepped into throws. The result: a career-best 326 passing yards, 29 completions on 42 attempts, and a heap of good film that shows a much cleaner performance in Week 4.
Welcome back to the Bo Nix Index, where The Denver Post studies every Nix rep from the previous week for some key themes and points of emphasis in his game. This week was hefty, with 45 dropbacks against a Bengals team that couldn’t handle Sean Payton’s blend of two-back balance and Nix’s decisiveness. Here are four takeaways.
1. Nix was often a step ahead of Cincinnati’s defense.
Nix’s most impressive rep of his sophomore season so far did not come on a tightly fitted dart, or his Week 2 scramble-and-toss to Troy Franklin. It came in Week 4, late in the third quarter of a game the Broncos had long already won, on a simple screen pass to Franklin.
As Nix readied for a snap, he spotted Cincinnati safety Jordan Battle creeping slowly toward the line of scrimmage. The Broncos quarterback paused and flashed a hand at receiver Trent Sherfield, isolated out wide. Sherfield motioned tighter to the right of Denver’s formation. Battle then burst off the snap to the direct area Nix had pointed to, as Sherfield went to cut him off.
The problem: Sherfield didn’t exactly block Battle. Nix’s back was turned to him for a play-action look with running back J.K. Dobbins, and corner Daxton Hill came flying off the other edge into his face. Instead of executing a fake handoff, Nix pulled it back and just zipped a wonky-leg screen to Franklin, who caught the Bengals in blitz mode and dashed for 15 yards.
If Nix had actually fully faked the handoff to Dobbins, Battle or Hill would’ve blasted him and blown up the play. That’s advanced feel and instincts at the quarterback position.
There’s a reason Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley felt like Nix was the “highest football-IQ guy” of a stacked 2024 QB class. Nix showed advanced IQ on a few other reps, too, including a third-quarter quick-hit to RJ Harvey in the flat where Nix appeared to intentionally lead Harvey to give him a running start on a 12-yard gain.
2. Nix was at his best when he was decisive with his reads.
Let’s present two different timestamps here.
Nix played most often Monday night like the version of himself that showed up on the Broncos’ second drive from scrimmage. In that first-quarter sequence, he didn’t hesitate on a variety of designed reads: hitting Courtland Sutton over the middle for a first down, and wheeling out and hitting tight end Adam Trautman for 26 yards. On a third-and-5 in the red zone, Nix cycled through progressions, found nobody, gave a little pass-fake to Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson to freeze him, and scampered untouched into the end zone.
On a drive late in the first half, though, Nix played like the version of himself that had been scattered through three weeks. On a first-down rollout from the Cincinnati 11-yard line, Nix tried to find Adam Trautman working into the Bengals’ end zone and missed an opportunity to dump it off to Evan Engram earlier. The next play, Franklin knocked off Battle as he was shadowing Engram in motion, leaving acres of space for Nix to dump it off again to his new tight end.
But Nix hesitated and held the ball for three seconds. By the time he hit Engram, Battle recovered and tackled him short of a first down. No single receiver got open on a subsequent fourth-and-1 look, and Nix attempted a desperation toss toward Franklin in the back of the end zone.
It was picked. Nix froze on the sidelines for a moment after he threw it. He froze too often, in general, on this sequence.
Nix was 12 of 14 for 120 yards and a 126.2 quarterback rating when he got the ball out under 2.5 seconds against the Bengals, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. He was 17 of 28 for 206 yards and an 80.4 quarterback rating when he took over 2.5 seconds to get the ball out. Obviously, it’s a more difficult environment when plays break down, but Nix was much better Monday when he was decisive.
3. Nix’s footwork was a lot better stepping up in the pocket.
Nix struggled notably with drifting forward on deep balls against the Chargers in Week 3. He only had one such rep against the Bengals in Week 4, when his feet went topsy-turvy on a toss to Franklin. And that ball still could’ve hit for a massive gain, slipping right through Franklin’s hands.
Outside of that, Nix appeared to have a lot more stability in his lower half on Monday. Two of his best deliveries of the day — a second-quarter scramble to Sutton and a 23-yard strike to Franklin — came as Nix stepped up in the pocket and fired. He hit on another late in the second quarter, fitting in a 28-yard ball to Marvin Mims Jr. down the left sideline in a tight window.
Nix was pressured much less often against the Bengals (16% of his dropbacks) than the Chargers (44%). But he stepped up cleanly when he did feel pressure off the edge, and the numbers show drastic improvement in those situations: 6 of 7 for 88 yards, a touchdown and a perfect 158.3 passer rating when under duress.
4. Nix has special chemistry with Sutton. That’s still a work in progress with Engram.
An early second-quarter rep was a sign of things to come, as Nix continues to trust Sutton implicitly in key situations. As Sutton burst off the line of scrimmage for a comeback route, Nix cocked back to fire before Sutton had even begun to separate against the Bengals’ Cam Taylor-Britt. The ball was perfectly timed to Sutton’s route, and the receiver broke off a double-move and went for 19 yards.
Later in the second quarter came the highlight of the day: Nix cycling through reads and letting it rip to Sutton on a seam route, who wrestled a 20-yard laser away from Hill for a touchdown.
Sutton finished with five catches on six targets for 81 yards and a touchdown, as his comfort level with Nix grows with each installment of a now 21-game partnership.
Nix’s other safety blanket, though, hasn’t quite been as advertised early on. Engram caught four balls for 29 yards on seven targets, and most of them came on clearly designed reads. The quarterback checked down a couple of throws to his running backs in the second half rather than turn to an open Engram. Four games in, that connection’s still a work in progress.