Bo Nix’s place in Sports Illustrated’s latest quarterback rankings is going to raise some eyebrows in Denver.
After the Broncos’ 14-3 run and trip to the AFC Championship, there’s no shortage of opinions on where Nix belongs among the NFL’s starting quarterbacks. Some see a rising star knocking on the door of the top 10.
Others still have him more in the middle of the pack. Matt Verderame landed much closer to the latter group in his preseason rankings for the 2026 campaign.
Verderame slotted Nix at No. 18, just outside the top 16.
“Nix is a good player who was perhaps a broken ankle away from reaching the Super Bowl in his second year. He’s also a player who has thrown for more than 7.0 yards per attempt in 13 of his 34 regular-season games,” Verderame wrote.
He also pointed to the volume Nix handled last season: “Last year, Nix led the NFL with 612 pass attempts while throwing for 3,931 yards. The last quarterback to pace the league in attempts and not throw for 4,000 yards?
Sam Howell in 2023. No other quarterback has achieved that feat in the last 20 seasons.
Now with Jaylen Waddle as a running mate for Courtland Sutton, maybe Nix can produce at a top-10 clip.”
That ranking puts Nix ahead of C.J. Stroud at No.
19, Aaron Rodgers at No. 20, and Kyler Murray at No. 21.
Even with the placement, it’s hard to argue Nix still belongs in the same conversation as the quarterbacks clustered behind him. He’s already shown he can win, he helped push Denver into the top half of the league in scoring offense and into the top 10 in yards gained, and he finished 2025 with 3,931 passing yards, just shy of 4,000.
He also delivered six fourth-quarter comebacks in his second season, including the one in the Broncos’ divisional-round win over the Buffalo Bills that helped send Denver to the championship game. If he had been healthy, there’s a case he could have taken the Broncos even deeper.
Nix may not have earned top-10 status yet, especially if the concern is whether he can become a more dangerous downfield passer and keep stacking strong seasons. But there’s also a legitimate argument that he should already be sitting above Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, and Baker Mayfield.
That would put him firmly in the top half of starting quarterbacks. Instead, this ranking leaves him on the wrong side of No. 20, and it gives Denver even more motivation heading into a 2026 season that already has plenty of attention on it.
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