Bo Nix has already given Denver plenty to build on, but through four games of 2026, the Broncos are still waiting for the version of him that lives in the middle.
That’s the problem Josh Dover zeroed in on during a recent edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan. Nix, in Dover’s view, keeps bouncing from one extreme to the other - too aggressive one week, too cautious the next.
“One week, he does this, ‘You wanna pull your hair out because he’s doing it the wrong way,’ and then the next week, he’s as conservative as a conservative can be, and doesn’t wanna take any chances,” Dover said.
That up-and-down play has shown up all over the early season. In the opener at Kansas City, Nix threw an interception and lost three fumbles in a 31-10 defeat.
Then, on Sunday in San Francisco, he went the other direction, completing only 1 of 9 passes thrown 10 or more yards downfield and passing on throws he would have made a year ago. Denver dropped that game too, 24-14, and slipped to 2-2.
Neither version is working.
When Nix presses, the turnovers pile up and the Broncos’ defense gets put in bad positions. When he plays it safe, defenses can sit on the short stuff, the field shrinks and Denver’s offense starts dragging from the opening series. The result is a team that keeps fighting uphill.
That’s why Dover reached for the same old Goldilocks image.
“So where’s my perfect porridge, right?” Dover said.
He’s been searching for the right temperature all season, and in this case, it’s about the quarterback.
“Where’s that right temperature porridge for Bo Nix of not making a stupid throw that an eighth-grade quarterback would be benched for throwing, but also, I mean, I don’t know how other way to put this, not being scared like Julian Lewis was with the Buffaloes,” Dover said.
The Julian Lewis comparison lands hard. In CU’s season opener at Georgia Tech, the Buffs ran the ball 49 times and threw it 27 times because the staff didn’t trust their sophomore quarterback.
Lewis is 18, so that kind of caution fits. Nix is in his third NFL season and already has an AFC Divisional Round win on his résumé.
At this point, he’s supposed to be beyond that kind of hesitation.
Dover isn’t calling for a new quarterback or a new identity. He wants Nix to settle in, get into a rhythm and stop shifting personalities from series to series.
Take the shot when it’s there. Take the checkdown when it isn’t.
Don’t let one bad throw turn into a half-game of playing scared.
Denver still has the Chargers and Seahawks ahead in its opening six-game stretch, and the Broncos believe they’ve got the pieces to compete with anybody. But that only works if the quarterback is steady enough to let the rest of it matter. If Nix can’t find that middle ground soon, the road ahead could get a lot rougher in Denver.
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