ENGLEWOOD, Colorado – Wednesday was a monumental day for Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos.
But there was no cake or candles to celebrate this historic day.
“Bo Nix will be our starting quarterback,” the head coach announced to Denver media on Wednesday afternoon, minutes after the team finished practice.
Normally, an important decision, such as naming a starting quarterback, is made at a meeting in front of the entire team. The head coach makes an announcement. The players cheer.
None of this happened on Wednesday.
Instead, Payton took a very unique approach to sharing the news with Nix, Jarrett Stidham, Zach Wilson, the media and the world.
“Right out here on the practice field before practice. I just grabbed every single one of them,” Payton said, admitting that he told the quarterbacks about the big decision in a very casual way. “I didn’t want to read about it in the national media before I talked to you guys.”
The head coach did not bring the sparklers and confetti to the practice field.
“He was smiling and good. We were getting ready for practice, that’s it,” Payton said of Nix’s reaction to the news before cracking a joke. “We didn’t have cake and candles or anything.”
“He came over and said he would tell you this afternoon (and said), ‘Let’s have a good workout,'” Nix recalled that memorable moment in his career.
“It was really cool. You don’t get news like that every day,” Denver’s first-round pick said, describing the emotions of learning he would be the Broncos’ starter in Week 1. “Obviously, we’ve worked hard as a team, filmed a lot of good things and shown a lot of good things on the practice field. Getting that news is definitely a great thing. So I’m super excited and ready to get back to work. Go back and start over.”
Two hours after Nix received the news, he still hadn’t told a soul. He hadn’t been able to celebrate the news with his friends, family, or even his wife because he was at training.
“They’ve probably heard of you,” said the 24-year-old rookie, smiling. “We’ll talk about it later, I’m sure. They’ll be excited and they’ll all tell me the same thing, which is that it doesn’t change anything. You have to go back and work. Now the expectations and standards are even higher. You have to focus on the essentials again and keep that in mind.”
When Nix heard this news at the beginning of training, he was not at all upset.
“We attacked every day like we were the starter,” Nix said, explaining why this big news didn’t affect his training. “We attacked everyone, every time we could play with the 1s and every time we could switch. We all went to practice like this was our chance to be the starter. If you go into it with that mindset and then they tell you, not much should change because that’s how you’ve been training and that’s your daily habit.”
Although it was important news, it was hardly surprising. Even Payton admitted that the team “saw this coming to some extent,” while the outside world knew it was just a matter of When Nothing would be named as a starter, not If.
“One of my goals this offseason was to improve relations with the local media, and I wanted you to know first,” Payton added with a laugh.
If all goes well with Bo Nix’s career, August 21 will be remembered as the day Sean Payton was almost quietly officially crowned the franchise’s quarterback.
