Nix has completed 69.5% of his passes for 282.5 yards per game<\/a> and thrown five touchdowns and an interception. Before that stretch, he completed 60.9% and averaged 212 yards per game.\n<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s changed? Start from the ground up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his footwork has got a lot better,\u201d offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday. \u201cAnd the way he handles himself in the pocket, trusting the protection. We\u2019ve talked about it all year and the last four games he\u2019s done a really good job of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s moving when he needs to and he\u2019s hanging in there when he needs to.\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Head coach Sean Payton said earlier this season that the quarterbacks get some specific footwork drilling during a typical game week, but not a ton. They\u2019ll work a particular concept or drop between periods, but for the most part, the work is plan-specific.\n<\/p>\n
Nix, though, has been working on his own pocket presence in his own ways in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s probably one of the best \u2026 at learning from mistakes, and looking in the mirror and seeing what his weaknesses are,\u201d tight end Evan Engram told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s sitting in there, he\u2019s trusting the protection, he\u2019s letting it rip. And that\u2019s something that he saw. And he worked on. And like \u2013 I can\u2019t say how hard that is. I\u2019ve never done it in my life. You\u2019ve got freakin\u2019 monsters rushing you, every play. And credit to the O-line, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The staff also appears to be doing a better job of helping Nix find his rhythm. Part of that comes from playing more frequently from under center. The touchdowns outlined above came from the shotgun, but one commonly held belief is that playing from under center helps keep footwork clean because a quarterback is forced to do so on the way back from the center.<\/p>\n
Since the Broncos returned from their bye week, the uptick has been notable.<\/p>\n
Denver averaged 29.4% of offensive snaps under center in the first 11 games. Over the past three games, the number is 42.8%.\n<\/p>\n
Nix has attempted nearly half as many passes from under center the past three games (25) as he did in the first 11 (51). That\u2019s partly because he\u2019s playing more from under center, though Denver\u2019s under-center pass rate has also increased from 24.5% over the first 11 games to 29.3% the past three weeks.\n<\/p>\n
Nix only completed 1 of 6 passes against Green Bay for 16 yards from under center. However, the week before, he was 10 of 10 for 71 yards against Las Vegas.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEach game is different relative to when we look at gun runs, under-center runs, try to self-scout ourselves enough to where there\u2019s enough play-action, maybe under center, drop back,\u201d Payton said between Vegas and Green Bay, adding that he thought Nix made a quick transition to playing under center even though he hardly did it in college at Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that hasn\u2019t been a big learning curve. I think it\u2019s gone pretty smooth,\u201d Payton added.\n<\/p>\n
Particularly since the bye week, the Broncos have leaned more and more into it. Payton and Lombardi say usage depends on individual game plans.<\/p>\n
The longer this uptick continues, though, the more it looks like a philosophical shift.<\/p>\n
Broncos reporter Luca Evans contributed to this story.\u00a0<\/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":"On the first of Bo Nix\u2019s four touchdown passes against Green Bay last Sunday, he did what he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[925,232,49536,1270,231,258,2426,2826,7,46166,929,926,6,9,1275],"class_list":{"0":"post-613807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-bo-nix","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-broncos-offense","11":"tag-courtland-sutton","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-broncos","14":"tag-denverbroncos","15":"tag-evan-engram","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-joe-lombardi","18":"tag-latest-headlines","19":"tag-more-broncos-news","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-troy-franklin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115749645545474956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}