How Bo Nix and a Rising Broncos Offense Changed the AFC Playoff Picture

Ten years after a veteran-laden Denver Broncos defense carried an overaged Peyton Manning to a Super Bowl title, a youth movement within the organization — headlined by second-year quarterback Bo Nix — has the team back in contention to earn the AFC’s berth at Super Bowl 60.

While the Broncos’ defense has received the lion’s share of the credit for the team’s 10-2 start, Sunday’s 27-26 overtime win over the Commanders proved that the offense is still capable enough to pick up the slack when the defense has an off night. Despite the fact that it marks just the fifth time in 12 games that Denver has scored at least 25 points, Bo Nix has thrown for 295-plus yards in his last two outings and has executed game-winning scoring drives in each of those games.

The concern for the Broncos throughout the season has been that the team has been winning in spite of Nix instead of because of him. That has been true at times, but the leeway provided by the Broncos’ defense has given Nix time to come into his own as the team begins the final stretch of the regular season.

If the Broncos do manage to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC over the New England Patriots, you won’t be able to say they didn’t earn it. In their final five games of the regular season, they’ll meet likely playoff-bound teams in the Packers, Jaguars, and Chargers, in addition to the always dangerous but currently middling Chiefs.

To get through that stretch without a significant dent in their armor, the Broncos are going to need the version of Nix they’ve gotten the last two weeks. Interceptions be damned. Sub-20-point outings against the Broncos, Jets, and Texans put far too much pressure on the defense and isn’t a sustainable formula. They should be entirely willing to risk giving Nix more responsibility in the passing game — even if it means there are some more mistakes, too.

The good news if you’re a Broncos fan is that Nix has the perfect coach to guide him through this potentially season-defining stretch. If the last two weeks are any indication, Payton’s second-year protégé is earning more and more trust in the offense as the team attempts to surpass the Patriots for the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the AFC Playoffs.

After all, the Broncos are at their best when Payton entrusts Nix to throw downfield. Both of the Broncos’ losses have come in games where Nix threw 30 or fewer passes, but they’re 7-0 in games where he throws more than 30 passes.

For a team that has mostly relied on the havoc it creates on the other side of the ball, those are pretty encouraging numbers that provide more of a glass-half-full outlook of the Broncos’ offensive potential heading into a wide-open AFC playoff bracket.