ENGLEWOOD — Due to his inconsistency, there have been plenty unflattering statistics thrown out about Bo Nix, but there is one stat the Broncos quarterback really loves.
Since coming to Denver in 2024, Nix has had 15 regular-season game-winning drives, the most of any NFL quarterback in his first three seasons.
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“It’s a great stat,” Nix said after Wednesday’s practice at Broncos Park.
After all, the stat refers to games won by the Broncos and that’s what Nix is all about. In his career, Nix also has 12 regular-season fourth-quarter comeback wins.
Nix has had plenty of rough times this season in the first three quarters, which is why he is rated as just the No. 33 quarterback in the NFL out of 38 by Pro Football Focus. But he has five game-winning drives and four fourth-quarter comebacks for the 6-2 Broncos.
“I’ve always felt like I’ve wanted to be a clutch player,” said Nix, looking back also on his high school days in Alabama and his college career at Auburn and Oregon. “I think it’s an important quality as a player when everybody is looking at you when the pressure is on. I think that’s when a player is called to play his best is when everybody knows that is the opportunity and everyone is looking at the quarterback to see how they respond.”
Nix, though, stressed that it’s a team effort.
“I just think we got a lot of guys with a clutch gene. We got a lot of guys that when the game’s on the line, we just find ways to go score. … I’d much rather be known as the guy that wins games in the close ones than the guy that always looks great early … but doesn’t know how to close out the game. I’d much rather be clutch than the other way around.”
One of the great mysteries surrounding the Broncos is why Nix often looks so average or below average in the first three quarters before turning it on in the fourth. In last Sunday’s 28-24 win over the Chiefs at Empower Field, he completed 4 of 7 passes for 17 yards in the third quarter as the Broncos had three three-and-outs and fell behind 24-13. But in the fourth quarter, Nix completed 5 of 6 for 85 yards and led two touchdown drives, including a game-winning drive that put Denver ahead for good with 1:56 left in the game.
On Wednesday, Nix was asked about his ability to turn it on in the fourth quarter when he might not previously have been playing at a high level.
“I just think it’s opportunity, and that’s just usually how the game goes,” Nix said. “It’s a one-score game at the end, and you got to go out there and win.”
Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix throws with Kansas City Chiefs’ Khyiris Tonga rushing during the second half of an NFL football game in Denver, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
Nix said that “naturally” he is more aggressive in late-game situations when the game is on the line.
According to The Associated Press, Nix in his career, including the playoffs, has a 118.9 passer rating when down between one and eight points in the fourth quarter. That ranks first among 169 NFL quarterbacks with 75 or more attempts in that scenario since 1991.
Overall, Nix’s passer rating is 83.6 this season and 89.3 for his career in the regular season.
Entering Sunday’s game at Carolina, Broncos coach Sean Payton didn’t profess to have any in-depth knowledge of why there often is a big difference between Nix’s play in the first three quarters and in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t have the answer,” Payton said. “I look at it internally myself like, ‘All right, let’s get going.’ I’ve said this before, I’ll let you know the week we don’t want to start fast, but it’s not this week. We want to start fast.”
Payton did point to a 17-14 overtime win over Seattle on Oct. 15, when Nix had some good moments in the first half but struggled in the second half. He was credited with a game-winning drive that night thanks to cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian getting an overtime interception that led to a field goal after Denver’s offense gained just eight yards in three plays.
Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) makes a change at the line against the Seattle Seahawks during the first half Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. (Christian Murdock, The Gazette)
But that has been an exception to how Nix’s performance often goes in Denver wins. The Broncos have won 15 straight regular-season one-score games over the past two seasons, tying the NFL record set by the Indianapolis Colts from 2008-09.
“I think it goes back to he’s a tremendous football player,” Broncos backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham told The Denver Gazette about Nix’s late-game heroics. “That stat (of 15 game-winning drives) kind of shows it. When the lights are the brightest, that’s when he comes out and plays his best. He’s a supersmart player, obviously knows the offense and knows what we’re trying to get done. … He’s able to just make magic when he needs to.”
So why does Nix make much less magic earlier in games?
“I don’t know,” Stidham said. “It could be all sorts of different things, but we always talk about in the quarterback room, no matter if things are going really good or really bad, you just got to keep chipping away and you just got to keep the pedal to the metal. You have to have that mindset as a quarterback because not every day is going to be perfect. No quarterback’s ever played perfect. So it’s one of those things where if things aren’t going good, keep pressing forward and keep doing your thing.”
Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton said it comes down to confidence Nix has gained from all the times he has engineered game-winning drives.
“I think it’s a confidence thing in himself, a confidence thing in our offense,” Sutton said. “I think that the more times you get thrown into a situation, the more you’re able to overcome said situation. It’s like a math problem. The more times you see a math problem, it becomes easier for you to solve that problem when you see it again. I think that us getting thrown into the fire and having to have these comeback moments (that) the more you have those opportunities, you see the success.”
Want another stat that shows how clutch Nix is? Over the last two years, the Broncos are a staggering 8 of 10 in 2-point conversions, including 4 of 4 this season.
The Broncos most often don’t go for 2 unless they really need an additional point in a tight game or while mounting a comeback. Of those eight converted 2-point conversions, seven have come courtesy of a Nix throw, including three of the four this season.
“It’s just trust in the play. … We practice those plays and we repped them,” Nix said.
Nix, though, didn’t call Denver’s 2-point conversion success a “great stat.” Perhaps that’s because one of the conversions this season came in a game they lost, 24-14 at San Francisco in Week 4.