Bo Nix is ​​no longer NFL Draft QB6 … he is QB1, The Man in Broncos Country

DENVER — The Bo Nix era officially began Sunday.

Yes, the ledger shows he was the Week 1 starter, becoming the first rookie quarterback to open a season under center for the Denver Broncos since the exalted John Elway back in 1983. But for every young passer who successfully finds his footing in the NFL, there is always a moment when potential turns to achievement, hope turns to tangible result, and the hopes of the entire franchise find safety in his hands.

And that brings us to Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons.

Bo Nix nursed a 2-game losing streak coming off what might have been the most excruciating regular-season loss in more than a decade, striding onto the field with the confidence of a veteran who knew last week’s pain was muted and this week would be different.

And his teammates followed his lead — all the way to a 38-6, three-phase rout.

“Bo is not your average rookie, I would say,” safety PJ Locke said. “And you can just feel his confidence grow, his leadership grow, and it rubs off on a lot of people, man. And he goes out there and executes and gets that offense going, and man, it’s just a — It’s a fun sight to see and I think everybody feeds off of it, man.”

As Locke noted, when Nix plays well and gives the Broncos a lead, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph can attack. So Nix played a role in the defense’s best performance of the season, holding the potent Falcons to a pair of field goals.

“When your offense is going … it’s a whole different ball game,” Locke said. “VJ calls the game different. You know, he’s able to rush the passer, you know. You know how VJ did, man, when he’s ready to rush the passer, he’s going to go crazy with it.”

Meanwhile, Nix remained undisturbed. Atlanta starter Kirk Cousins ​​went down three times. Nix, just once, when Mike McGlinchey was pushed into his path by Atlanta’s Matthew Judon.

Aside from that hiccup, Nix had time to operate and climb the pocket. And he never looked finer.

BO NIX HAD A DAY LIKE NO OTHER ROOKIE QB, BUT IT WASN’T IN A VACUUM

To what extent Bo Nix jumped out, well, that’s an outlier. He’s not likely to get another contest this season in which he throws four touchdown passes, amasses 300 yards, completes 80 percent of his attempts and doesn’t throw an interception. That had never happened to a rookie quarterback before.

But it wasn’t just a one-off against an enemy that found itself on the ropes early on. This had actually been built since week 3.

Since then, Nix had managed to learn how not to lose. He avoided fouls at a rate better than almost any rookie quarterback in NFL history over an 8-game stretch. Of his 6 interceptions so far this season, 4 came in Weeks 1 and 2. And the lopsidedness evident in the first two games gradually disappeared.

It wasn’t that there weren’t still some jarring transitions — there were passes down the left flank in New Orleans that landed nearly equidistant between Lucas Krull and Troy Franklin — but those moments grew rarer as the weeks went on.

Nix’s measurements were improved; entering Sunday night, Nix ranked 12th in EPA/play and 10th in CPOE among 34 quarterbacks with at least 100 plays from Week 6 onward. There were signs of his growth in the two-minute offense; entering Sunday, the Broncos had scored on drives that began in the final four minutes of the first half in five of their first 10 games.

All the signs of progress were there. Only the ignorant overlooked them. And this was to say nothing of the intangibles that go into leadership, aspects that were evident to teammates all along.

“He’s probably the most mature rookie I’ve ever been around,” edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said. “And just the way he took control of the offense and just being a leader for this team, everything he does, it’s not a surprise to me.”

And as left guard Quinn Meinerz noted, Nix has been “the same person” since he arrived.

“When I first saw him in training camp, like the beginning of OTAs and stuff, I saw a cool, calm, collected, confident, rookie quarterback,” Meinerz said.

“I think we all said at the beginning, like, it was like, wow, this guy’s got some swag to him and he’s got some confidence and he’s continued to develop and attack every day and getting better, just like we all are, so it’s great to have him lead us back there.”

But it didn’t come together in an instant. Like a storm pouring over warm water, Nix needed some time to build strength. On Sunday, he unleashed Hurricane-force destruction on a battered Atlanta defense that was ill-equipped to counter the precision with which he struck, finding a series of targets that caught passes all over the field.

On Sunday, there wasn’t a throw that Nix couldn’t make. A 33-yard strike to Devaughn Vele up the middle late in the second quarter was the kind of pass that seemed out of his reach in the early weeks of the season.

But against Atlanta, Nix stepped on a pin that set off what would become a 10-play, 70-yard sprint to a Marvin Mims Jr. 12-yarder. touchdown reception that snuffed out any opportunity the Falcons had to build momentum before halftime. Nix went 6-of-7 for 75 yards on that drive, overcoming a 12-yard loss on a goal-to-go sack.

It was the Broncos’ sixth score in 11 games this season on a drive that started with less than four minutes left in the first half. Nix is ​​30-of-48 for 328 yards on those drives.

On the fleeting occasions when the Falcons showed life, Nix responded by stepping on them. Once again, Denver was excellent on third downs, going 6-of-10 when Nix was on the field. Nix posted a 143.5 passer rating on third downs, going 8-for-9 for 86 yards and a touchdown.

SO WHAT’S NEXT? ROOKIE OF THE YEAR?

“Rookie of the year? … damn right … damn right,” PJ Locke said. “If it isn’t, we need to go talk to someone.”

Then security reined itself in.

“Let me scale back. We still have a whole bunch of games so I don’t want to mess anything up,” Locke said, “So keep taking it week by week, but I hope so.”

It doesn’t seem so crazy now. Washington’s Jayden Daniels is beat up and has leveled up. Meanwhile, Nix is ​​ascendant and spreads the ball around to his targets, making the Broncos offense greater than the sum of its parts.

This brought a sense of giddiness to a dressing room that was gloomy just a week earlier. Because after a day like this, when Nix raised the whole operation, anything seemed possible.

With this, where is the ceiling for the team”

“I don’t really think (there) is one, especially with him behind center,” Williams said. “I haven’t seen a quarterback, a rookie quarterback like him in a long time.

“And just the way he keeps his composure, the way he treats people, and just the way he plays on the field, I mean, he’s the total package.”

More importantly, he is the answer to Broncos Country’s fondest hope, dulled and exhausted by the quarterback questions that yielded no clear answers despite repeated attempts to find one by various methods.

Now the Broncos have their answer. For the first time since Peyton Manning, they have The Man.

And his name is Bo Nix.