Tom Brady didn’t sugarcoat the Denver Broncos’ offensive issues when he sized up Bo Nix and company ahead of Week 6.
Speaking on FOX Sports NFL power rankings, Brady said Denver’s defense has been doing its part, but the offense has not done enough to help itself. The Broncos have spent the first five weeks near the bottom of the league in major categories, including total yards and third-down efficiency, and Brady made it clear that’s a problem.
“We might have the biggest question mark of the NFL season so far,” Brady said. “The defense, again, does its job.
Opponents and the offense have got to find a way to push the ball down the field. Until then, nothing is really going to come too easy for them.”
The comments land at a time when the Broncos’ offense is already under the microscope. Sean Payton took over play-calling duties in Week 5 against the Los Angeles Chargers, a move that underscored how much attention Denver’s attack has drawn early in the 2026 season. Still, the Broncos are 3-2, and Nix says the record matters more than the noise around the offense.
“We’re sitting here at 3-2 and we’re having a good start to our season," Nix said on Wednesday. "There’s things we want to clean up, there’s things we want to fix.
We’re leaving some things out there on the field but we’re finding ways to win like we did last year. I feel strongly that we’re going to continue to do that, so the most important thing is winning, obviously.”
Nix also pushed back on the idea that he is stalling the offense. The criticism has centered on a more conservative approach, with the quarterback leaning on short throws and trying to avoid mistakes behind the offensive line.
“That’s honestly and truly the biggest battle right now because it’s like we want to be aggressive, want to be aggressive, want to be aggressive and then you see stats and see, ‘Well, this team is causing the most turnovers in the league,’” Nix said.
“And then it’s like, ‘Well, OK, I can’t put my team in a position where I’m turning the football over and putting our defense in a bad spot and giving them a short field.’”
The Broncos have already lived through a similar stretch. Their offense opened the 2025 season slowly, drew plenty of criticism, and dealt with low scoring and early-down problems under Nix before settling in later. Denver will be hoping for that same kind of turnaround again, even as the questions keep coming.
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