• A tough opening two games: Bo Nix struggled in his first two games, posting passing grades of 41.8 and 49.9 while completing just 57.3% of his passes for 388 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions.
• A breakthrough performance: It was a different story against the Buccaneers, though. Nix put up a passing grade of 71.6, completing 71% of his passes for 214 yards. While he didn’t throw for a touchdown, he did rush for one. In all, he contributed 52 rushing yards from 10 attempts, good for a 72.0 rushing grade.
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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
With all the attention on Jayden Daniels’ historic performance on Monday Night Football, Bo Nix’s first NFL win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers flew under the radar somewhat.
While Nix didn’t have the world-beating stat line Daniels had, the Denver Broncos quarterback played significantly better than he did through the first two weeks of the season and likely would’ve been the rookie of note were it not for Daniels.
Expectations were low for Denver coming into Tampa. In fact, the Buccaneers, missing key defensive players Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey and Antoine Winfield Jr., entered the game as 5.5-point favorites.
Still, despite having a bottom-two roster, the Broncos were at least able to be competitive in their 0-2 start to the season. Their losses had come by just one score, but the issue was that Denver's rookie quarterback had not played well in either game.
Nix struggled in his first two games, posting passing grades of 41.8 and 49.9 while completing just 57.3% of his passes for 388 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions.
His 42.8 grade over those two weeks ranked 39th out of 41 qualifying quarterbacks, ahead of only Will Levis and Bryce Young — the latter of whom was just benched.
Nix’s four interceptions tied him with Anthony Richardson and Patrick Mahomes for the most in the NFL over that span. However, unlike Nix, both Richardson and Mahomes balanced their turnovers with three touchdown passes each.
Rookie QBs: PFF grades after three weeks
It was a different story against the Buccaneers, though. Nix put up a passing grade of 71.6, completing 71% of his passes for 214 yards. While he didn’t throw for a touchdown, he did rush for one. In all, he contributed 52 rushing yards from 10 attempts, good for a 72.0 rushing grade.
Nix’s positives significantly outweighed the negatives, as he had 12 positively graded plays and just four negatively graded plays. He also delivered two big-time throws and had only one turnover-worthy play—a pass intended for his former college teammate, Troy Franklin, on a corner route that was undercut by fellow rookie Tykee Smith for a pass breakup.
Rookie QBs: Grading distribution through three weeks
| Name | Snaps | Negative | Positive | Neg. % | Pos. % |
| Bo Nix | 203 | 19 | 27 | 9.4% | 13.3% |
| Jayden Daniels | 196 | 15 | 36 | 7.7% | 18.4% |
| Drake Maye | 16 | 2 | 3 | 12.5% | 18.8% |
| Caleb Williams | 227 | 27 | 25 | 11.9% | 11.0% |
Nix had plenty of help from his offensive line, with standout performances from Quinn Meinerz, Alex Palczewski and Ben Powers, who each earned pass-blocking grades of at least 84.0. Garrett Bolles also contributed with a solid grade of 79.6.
His skill position players blocked well, too, as Adam Trautman and Javonte Williams also generated pass-blocking grades over 80.0, while Michael Burton turned in a 76.9 grade of his own.
In total, Nix’s blockers were charged with just nine pressures, and the only sack that occurred was called back due to an offsides penalty, with Nix knowing he had a free play.
The rookie quarterback averaged 2.7 seconds to throw, which was more than enough for the 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft to carve up the defending NFC South champions.
Bo Nix: Passing under pressure through three weeks
After two disappointing performances to begin his career, Bo Nix had by far the strongest performance of his NFL career.
While Denver is set to play what looks to be a potentially dangerous Jets team this Sunday, the four games following that look very winnable as they face the Raiders, Chargers, Saints and Panthers, all of whom have shown to have exploitable flaws early in the season.
If Nix plays them as he did the Buccaneers, a Broncos team that was expected to be bottom dwellers could make some noise in a competitive AFC.
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