Bo Nix making a late run at NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award

After the first month of the season, he's shown huge improvement

Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash

For most of the National Football League season, two rookie quarterbacks have garnered most of the attention. In the beginning, it was Caleb Williams, taken No. 1 in the draft by the Chicago Bears. Williams was considered a future franchise quarterback out of USC, but has suffered in an environment not conducive to his development.

Through the first half of the season, Jayden Daniels led the Washington Commanders to a surprising start and became a heavy favorite to be named the league’s offensive Rookie of the Year. But Daniels has come back to earth and his team has lost three straight games.

Nix got off to a slow start with the Denver Broncos. His first two games resulted in four interceptions and no touchdown passes. But since then, he’s thrown for 16 touchdowns with just two interceptions. He leads Daniels 16-12 in TD passes.

More than that, his team has been winning. And in the NFL, quarterbacks take more than their share of credit or blame for the fate of their team. Writing for SI.com, Thomas Hall flatly predicted Nix will win the award and uses some projections made prior to Sunday’s games to make his case.

Over the last four games, Nix is leading Daniels in passing yards per game by 25 yards, passer rating by 20 points and completion percent by 12. Like I said, Nix is red-hot right now.

Projecting these trends through the rest of the season shows that Nix will be ahead of Daniels in every category when the season concludes, even though the Commanders' rookie had the head start. The pace Nix is currently on will vault him into the top 10 of all quarterbacks this season in several categories. Those are the type of full-season statistics that garner attention for a rookie. 

Of course projecting stats is a risky business because the Broncos have some tough games ahead. But Nix is moving up the ladder and seems to be a legit contender for the award by the end of the season.

And considering the rookie quarterback competition this season, that would not have been predicted to be his destiny.