After the Denver Broncos picked Oregon prospect Bo Nix in the first round of April’s draft, coach Sean Payton praised the quarterback’s fast processing ability.
What exactly does it mean to be a fast processor? Nix was asked just that during his introductory press conference earlier this offseason.
“That’s a great question,” Nix said in April. “So it starts throughout the week with your preparation. It starts with what you can learn and what you already know and how you can fit them together. It is how you can collaborate with coaches and other players to form a game plan that best fits you and go out there and essentially execute it. You have to be as efficient as possible.
“So processing to me means taking something from the sideline, being able to evaluate it, see all of the pros and the cons of the play and understand that whatever happens, you have to react to it. So every play starts with, in the league, it starts with a huddle and starts with a play call. There’s probably a shift, or a motion or a movement. There’s going to be a cadence, there’s going to be probably a primary play and a secondary play. You have to figure out — all of this is just offense — so now you have to look at the defense and see what they’re in. You have to see the front, through the linebackers, through the safeties. Once you see that, you just process everything and you hope your preparation has led you up to the point to where you can find the solution, find the answer quickly.”
After starting 61 games in college (an NCAA record for a quarterback), Nix is not a typical rookie. The 24-year-old QB believes his extensive experience at the college level has helped him become a better processor.
“[I]t goes back to experience,” Nix said. “I’ve been able to see this look over and over and over to where I get it, I naturally know where to react. All that is is doing the plays over, and over and over. So at the beginning of this process, it’s going to be reading and reciting plays over, and over and over so you can spit it out in the huddle because if nobody knows what to do, you’re all going to be wrong once you get to the line of scrimmage.
“So communication, being elite communicators and eventually you just get to process information. It’s not just about processing it, it’s also about how fast you can do it. So again, I think it’s some people’s second nature, but it can also be developed. I think the processing from college to the league is going to be different. The game could be faster, the speed of the game will be a faster tempo. You’ll have to take that with a grain of salt because I think the best decision makers, the best processors are the ones who do it quickly and don’t overcomplicate the game. So when you see that, it’s just really pretty to watch. It’s just seeing what you need to see and reacting off of it.”
As the rookie noted, it will obviously be a big adjustment to go from college to the pros, but Nix has a good foundation to work from. Payton has worked with many quarterbacks, and he knows what it takes to have success at the highest level. He believes Nix has the smarts required to make it in the NFL. We’ll find out this fall.
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