{"id":741633,"date":"2026-02-10T02:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/741633\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:35:14","slug":"broncos-need-to-give-breece-hall-super-bowl-ride-on-bo-nix-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/741633\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos need to give Breece Hall Super Bowl ride on Bo Nix Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

That one\u2019s for the John.<\/a> The sooner we flush Super Bowl Suxty<\/a> out of our collective eyeballs, the better. Still, you win or you learn, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach mentioned that as well, just how young of a team that we are,\u201d Broncos punter Jeremy Crawshaw told me as we talked at his locker stall after the AFC championship. \u201cSo I think these guys, we kind of spoke about it, how (that learning is) going to fuel our off-season to be better for next year. I think everyone\u2019s kind of on-board with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the smartest guy in the room has to realize it ain\u2019t rocket science. The last two NFL champions had at least three things in common: 1.) An amazing defense; 2.) a decently mobile quarterback who won\u2019t make game-killing mistakes; 3.) a reliable No. 1 tailback who can soften up the opposition.<\/p>\n

Sean Payton<\/a>\u2018s already ticked the first two boxes. Why let your ego get in the way of the third?<\/p>\n

Seattle QB Sam Darnold\u2019s postseason completion percentage was a Bo Nix<\/a>-like 61.5% this winter. His touchdown-to-interception radio was five-to-zip. Running back Kenneth Walker III did the heavy lifting in the Divisional rout of San Francisco (116 yards rushing) and in that Super Bowl stomping of New England (135 yards rushing).<\/p>\n

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (5-to-1 TD\/pick ratio in the \u201924-25 playoffs) could lean on Saquon Barkley, who had at least 18 touches and at least 97 yards from scrimmage in each of Philly\u2019s four playoff wins a year ago.<\/p>\n

While the Seahawks were pounding New England, 29-13, New York Jets running back Breece Hall, who\u2019s just 24 years old and coming off a season of 1,415 scrimmage yards for an absolute dumpster fire of an offense, posted this to Xwitter:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHope I get to experience football on this stage. Everything on the line. I\u2019ll get there one day. I know it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, my goodness. Ease his pain, George Paton. Free the man. The Broncos need a 1A back to pair with RJ Harvey\u2019s 1B. A 1A who\u2019ll actually be healthy in December and January. A bell cow to lean on when the next snow squall hits.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Seahawks are just the Broncos with a better RB room<\/a>, a better WR room, and no self-delusions as to who they really are offensively.<\/a><\/p>\n

Seattle sacked Pats QB Drake Maye six times. Seahawks kicker Jason Myers drained a Super Bowl-record five field goals. The teams combined for 15 punts. Super Bowl 60 even felt like a Broncos game, other than the fact Seattle led 12-0 at the end of the third quarter instead of trailing. And that Seahawks coach Mike MacDonald elected to kick a field goal on fourth and short at the New England 23 to go up 9-0 just before halftime. When your defense can turn any pocket into a box of Kleenex, why get cute?<\/p>\n

An offense led by Jarrett Stidham would\u2019ve been a disaster against that Seattle front. But one led by a healthy Nix would\u2019ve made for a fair fight. Would Bo have been running for his life? Sure. But not the way Maye had to. Pro Football Focus ranked the Patriots\u2019 offensive line 11th in the NFL<\/a>. Pro Football Network said New England\u2019s hogmolies were 12th-best. PFF ranked the Broncos\u2019 OL No. 1. PFN had them at No. 4. Per SumerSports.com, the Patriots ranked 24th during the regular season in sack rate allowed (7.83%). The Broncos were first in the league (3.42%).<\/a><\/p>\n

Nix basically practiced against the Seahawks\u2019 pass rush for months at a time. Part of No. 10\u2019s superpower isn\u2019t just avoiding outside linebackers. It\u2019s his ability to keep the Broncos out of second-downs- or third-downs-and-forevers.<\/p>\n

I mean, yeah, the Patriots earned the right to be there. They beat Houston in the snow at home. They beat the Broncos in a blizzard at Empower, becoming the first New England bunch to ever win a postseason game here. The Pats made some of their own luck. Some. But I\u2019ll go to my grave assured that if Nix plays two weeks ago, and Stiddy doesn\u2019t, the Broncos would\u2019ve found a way. The way they almost always found a way.<\/p>\n

Sunday reminded us that runs to the outside zone never get old in the Big Game. Especially if you\u2019ve got the kind of offensive line that can pull it off. Payton\u2019s already got the latter in-house. He just needs a healthy hammer to hand off to.<\/p>\n

J.K. Dobbins, the Broncos\u2019 offensive MVP for the season\u2019s opening two months, is part workhorse, part tax auditor. His peak season only lasts about 11 or 12 weeks a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does this running back room need?\u201d I asked Dobbins during clean-out day last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we need \u2026\u201d Dobbins mused. \u201cI mean, you tell me what you think we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA healthy you would be good,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA big back would be good,\u201d I continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig back?\u201d Dobbins countered, musing again. \u201cI think I could do both, though. Don\u2019t you think that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can doubt me a little bit,\u201d he laughed. \u201cYou can tell me, \u2018Nah, I don\u2019t think so.\u2019 You\u2019d be like, \u2018Ah, you\u2019d get hurt.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Nah. Don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

You might get hurt, dude.<\/p>\n

Barkley hasn\u2019t played in fewer than 14 regular-season games since 2021. Walker has appeared in at least 12 regular-season games in every season since 2022. Hall has averaged 16.3 games over the last three seasons. Dobbins has averaged eight games per season since 2022. The latter\u2019s played in more than 13 regular-season games just once \u2014 all the way back in 2020, his rookie year.<\/p>\n

The last two NFL champs have led with incredible defenses, suffocated elite AFC passers, then run out the clock. The Broncos are on the right track. They just need more beef in the boxcar.<\/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":"That one\u2019s for the John. The sooner we flush Super Bowl Suxty out of our collective eyeballs, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[114,925,232,49536,46165,5748,564,231,258,2426,833,7,1331,1272,221,601,492,3872,2456,929,926,1917,6,1032,1878,1161,894,5295,1813,237,1098,9,2833,505],"class_list":["post-741633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-afc-championship","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos","tag-broncos-offense","tag-broncos-offensive-line","tag-broncos-takes","tag-colorado","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-drake-maye","tag-football","tag-front-range","tag-george-paton","tag-houston","tag-j-k-dobbins","tag-jalen-hurts","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-jeremy-crawshaw","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-new-york","tag-nfl","tag-rj-harvey","tag-sam-darnold","tag-san-francisco","tag-saquon-barkley","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sean-payton","tag-seattle","tag-snow","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-super-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741633","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=741633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}