Bo Nix put together a season that should have forced his way into the NFL’s quarterback conversation, but ESPN’s latest poll says the league still isn’t all the way there.
Jeremy Fowler surveyed NFL coaches, executives and scouts for his top-10 quarterback rankings, and Nix wound up buried in the “also receiving votes” group alongside C.J. Stroud and Daniel Jones.
Fowler’s exact note: "Also receiving votes: Bo Nix, Daniel Jones, C.J. Stroud," That put Nix outside the actual top 10 and well behind the names that drew fuller attention in the piece.
The quarterbacks who did land in the top 10 included Caleb Williams, Jared Goff and Drake Maye, while the “honorable mentions” section featured Sam Darnold, Jayden Daniels, Jordan Love, Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence and Jalen Hurts. Nix, by comparison, got only the brief mention that he had received top-10 votes.
That’s a pretty cold placement for a quarterback who just helped push the Broncos to the doorstep of the Super Bowl. Denver’s run ended when Nix was hurt late in the AFC Divisional Round, and the source material says that injury effectively wrecked the Broncos’ chances at getting to face the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
If you go strictly by where Fowler listed him, Nix would come in as the 18th quarterback in the league. That feels light considering what he just did.
Nix finished the season with 3,931 passing yards, 25 touchdowns, a 63.4% completion rate and 11 interceptions on 612 attempts, the most in the NFL last year. He also went 14-3. In the playoffs, he threw for 279 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in the one game he played against the Buffalo Bills before the late injury ended his night and, in the source’s view, likely dragged down his standing in this poll.
There’s still optimism around Nix and the Broncos offense heading into the 2026 season, especially now that Jaylen Waddle has joined the team. But for now, the league’s coaches, executives and scouts have made their point: they’re not ready to put Nix where his production suggests he belongs.
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