The Denver Broncos selected University of Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick of the NFL Draft last Thursday, filling a massive void under center.
The catch is that Nix is 24 years old, which has given many pause when it comes to evaluating him.
Is he too old? Will he not has much room for improvement as the younger rookies?
Broncos general manager George Paton is looking at it from a different perspective, stating that he thinks Nix is more NFL-ready than some of the other quarterbacks who were drafted.
“To me, the age, they’re going to be more, especially with a guy like Bo Nix, 61 starts, we feel like he’ll be more game-ready than if we were going to draft a 21-year-old,” Paton told Mike Klis of 9 News.
Nix is coming off of a fantastic 2023 campaign in which he threw for 4,508 yards, 45 touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 77.4 percent of his passes. He also rushed for 234 yards and six scores.
Paton and head coach Sean Payton loved what they saw from Nix at Oregon.
“I’d watched all the quarterbacks, seen them live (during the regular season on scouting trips),” Paton said. “And then the season’s over, I get with Sean and we watched the quarterbacks (on tape). And Sean liked a lot of these quarterbacks. And when we got to Bo, it was pretty instant. Sean was like, ‘man.’ You know, Sean. He really liked him, and then we went to the private workout and spent three hours with Bo in the meeting setting, and he was outstanding. And we go out to the field, and he made 10, 15 throws, and Sean came up to me and said, ‘This is the guy.'”
Nix was the sixth quarterback selected in the draft and was the fifth or sixth-ranked signal-caller on most draft boards, depending on who you ask.
However, it’s entirely possible that Nix is more prepared for professional football than most of the other quarterbacks taken, as he arguably posted the best numbers of any of them this past season.
We’ll see if Bo Nix can finally solve Denver’s quarterback problem in 2024 and beyond.
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