Leading up to the 2024 NFL draft, many pundits linked Oregon quarterback Bo Nix to the Denver Broncos for a simple reason: he plays like Drew Brees.
Brees, of course, broke records and won a Super Bowl playing for the New Orleans Saints under Sean Payton, who now coaches in Denver. After the Broncos used their first-round pick to select Nix, the quarterback was asked about the Brees comparisons during his introductory press conference.
“I grew up watching Drew Brees, I grew up watching Coach Payton coach,” Nix said on Friday. “I watched their Super Bowl. … Whenever you’re compared to a guy like Drew Brees, it’s an honor just because of the success he had and the career that he had. So all it is just talk. I have to go out there and continue to do things just for the respect of that comparison. I think that’s what excites me the most. I’m excited to just play football, I’m excited to go out there and compete.
“I saw the sign out there on the practice field that says, ‘Compete Street.’ I think that’s the best thing that you can have going out to the practice field because that’s all you’re doing. You just compete and compete to be the best for yourself because when you put your team together — it’s a team game. You have to rely on each and every individual. So watching those guys compete at practice, and then knowing that I’m going to compete as well, that’s what I’m really excited to do.”
Nix certainly has the right mentality for success in the NFL. He knows that the comparison means nothing if he doesn’t deliver on the field. Now teamed up with Payton, he aims to follow in Brees’ path.
“I knew the efficient offenses that they had and how well they worked together,” Nix said of the coach-QB duo. “Honestly, in college you learn with so many different coaches, that relationship is so important. So it’s one that every quarterback and play caller and head coach need to have together. I’m excited to be around him [Payton]; I’m excited to learn from him. Everything he tells me is something that I’m probably not going to know. So I’m going to do my best to take it all in and apply it to the field.”
Nix will report for rookie minicamp next month followed by mandatory minicamp in June and the start of training camp in late July. He’ll make his live debut when the Broncos begin preseason in August.
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