{"id":826854,"date":"2026-09-03T05:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T05:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826854\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T05:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T05:24:16","slug":"broncos-sean-payton-on-external-bo-nix-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826854\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos Sean Payton on external Bo Nix criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Payton has never been shy about expressing confidence in Bo Nix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He did the night Nix was drafted, saying he \u201cactively\u201d worked to convince Minnesota it had to trade up for J.J. McCarthy<\/a> at No. 10 as part of trying to ensure Nix made it to No. 12.<\/p>\n

He did last summer in proclaiming that Nix would be one of the top four or five quarterbacks in the NFL in the next two years.<\/p>\n

This summer, Payton took to social media to lambaste an NFL analyst who said Nix looked like the same player he was in college, writing, \u201cPAYTON.\u201d After Denver\u2019s preseason finale, he called that assertion \u201ccrazy\u201d,\u201d referenced \u201cbasement podcasts with the beer logo,\u201d and said, \u201cEverything is the opposite of what he was saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked Wednesday why others had such mixed opinions on his quarterback \u2014 ESPN this week had 16 quarterbacks listed among its top 100 overall players, but not Nix<\/a> \u2014 Payton had thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to answer that, but there\u2019s two things I think can happen,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can predetermine based on how you saw him coming out (of the draft) and slow to move off your draft opinion, which is very normal. And then oftentimes you\u2019re not exposed to certain players based on television.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran tight end Evan Engram said Wednesday that he gives \u201cno energy\u201d to what other people think about Nix and said, \u201cWe know what we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payton thinks so, too, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the one cool thing about our sport, though,\u201d Payton said. \u201cYou can argue, any position, top 10, all those discussions. Generally, time will give you those answers. We love what we\u2019re seeing (from Nix). They\u2019re measured by wins and measured by certain things and ultimately that\u2019s how history will be written about any of them, but quarterbacks specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s list did feature five Broncos: DT Zach Allen at No. 79, OLB Nik Bonitto at No. 56, RG Quinn Meinerz at No. 53, LT Garett Bolles at No. 37 and CB Pat Surtain II at No. 7.<\/p>\n

Taysom Hill? Not at the moment<\/p>\n

Payton earlier this offseason said he planned to check on long-time New Orleans tight end Taysom Hill after he was released by the Saints earlier this offseason.<\/p>\n

Payton did talk to Hill at Drew Brees\u2019 Hall of Fame induction ceremony last month, he said Wednesday, but said there hasn\u2019t been any movement toward Hill potentially playing for Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo updates. Nothing. I would let you know if we had anything,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI talked to him at the Hall of Fame, but it was really just with a group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payton, though, said he believes the Broncos\u2019 current group of tight ends can operate at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of like where we\u2019re at,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought retaining Lucas (Krull) was important to the practice squad. I like where that room\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jarrett Stidham is the Broncos\u2019 No. 2 quarterback<\/p>\n

The Broncos have three quarterbacks on their active roster, but Jarrett Stidham is still the backup, Payton said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s preseason finale, Payton was noncommittal between Stidham and Sam Ehlinger as the primary backup to Bo Nix.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Payton said Stidham would be the second into a game, \u201cnow.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.K. Dobbins is ready to roll<\/p>\n

Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins was one of a small group of players who did not see any snaps in the preseason.<\/p>\n

Dobbins missed one day of practice with what Payton called a \u201csoft tissue\u201d injury, but otherwise has been healthy through camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s moving well and he\u2019s doing really well,\u201d Payton said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Payton has never been shy about expressing confidence in Bo Nix. He did the night Nix was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,10148,2858,301,2863,187,3943,45735,28551,39900,5245,34717,42237,165,6324,6,9,19559,302,20405,38209,43285,8131,66,40055,42244],"class_list":["post-826854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-basketball","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-drew-brees","tag-evan-engram","tag-garett-bolles","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-j-k-dobbins","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-nik-bonitto","tag-nuggets","tag-pat-surtain-ii","tag-quinn-meinerz","tag-sam-ehlinger","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports","tag-taysom-hill","tag-zach-allen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117205445068054674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}