Good morning, Broncos Country!
Well, another silly ranking is out and the outrage is building. According to NFL executives and coaches, who have been asked to rank the best players at every position right now, our best quarterback doesn’t even crack the top half of the league.
Bo Nix, they believe, is the 18th best quarterback in the NFL.
And the best QB is the guy Nix outplayed in the playoffs last season.
The top five were predictable — Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson.
The next five were somewhat perplexing choices, picking Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert at No. 6 and 7 seemingly for their names rather than their recent performances while Drake Maye slid in at No. 8 and Jared Goff took the ninth spot. Then it was another QB from Nix’s 2024 draft class that rounded out the top 10 — Caleb Williams.
Since these rankings mean nothing and the reasons for the coaches and executives individual choices are relatively unknown, varied and biased, debate over the list is worthless. But still kind of fun.
Because what’s more motivational before training camp than to have your franchise QB be discounted? A quarterback who essentially saved the team (along with help from his head coach and GM) from spiraling into Jets-level irrelevancy?
Almost nothing.
Nix may or may not be a top 10 QB in the NFL based on all the metrics (I believe he is), but to say he’s in the bottom half of the league when he’s gotten the team to the playoffs his first two years in the NFL, and likely would have gotten the Broncos to the Super Bowl last year if not for an unfortunate injury in the closing moments of the Broncos’ 33-30 divisional round playoff win over the Bills, is insane.
It’s clear the Mahomes and Burrow picks in the top 5 were just lazy. Of course those guys are great quarterbacks, but neither had a top-five QB kind of season in 2025, certainly not better than Nix. And Maye and Williams are decent choices for top 10 consideration, but again, Nix should have definitely been in the conversation for which one of those Class of 2024 QBs makes the top 10 — and I don’t know how Nix doesn’t beat out Williams for that spot.
Nix’s eight fourth-quarter comebacks and 10 come-from-behind wins in his first two years as a pro are no fluke. Beating Josh Allen and the Bills in the playoffs should have put him in serious contention for top 5 even.
But truthfully, I love when our rankings become bulletin board material. Nix and the Broncos have a tough season on the horizon and nothing is worse for that than overconfidence. So a little motivation for not being taken seriously isn’t always a bad thing.
