{"id":753666,"date":"2026-02-15T10:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:38:27","slug":"champ-bailey-gives-take-on-bo-nix-teams-2026-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753666\/","title":{"rendered":"Champ Bailey gives take on Bo Nix, team&#8217;s 2026 outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 14, 2026, 6:00 a.m. MT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The story is just beginning for <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Denver Broncos<\/a> quarterback Bo Nix and the team, believes Hall of Famer Champ Bailey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I feel like if he continues to grow the way we&#8217;ve seen him grow between Year 1 and Year 2, and now coming up on Year 3, this is the time when you start seeing him separate himself from what he was to what he could be,&#8221; Bailey told <a href=\"\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Broncos Wire<\/a> while <a href=\"http:\/\/broncoswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/broncos\/2026\/02\/13\/nfl-champ-bailey-pushes-mike-shanahan-hall-of-fame\/88607839007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">promoting Panini America<\/a> at the Super Bowl. &#8220;I know that that gives the team a lot of confidence about what they can do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Bailey attributed the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Broncos<\/a>&#8216; success to their emerging offense and attacking defense, which led the NFL in sacks by a wide margin in 2025, and is returning defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. &#8220;I do believe they could do some really big things,&#8221; Bailey said. &#8220;No. 1 seed, you can&#8217;t get much better than that. Home field advantage. So I expect them to at least be in the running for that No. 1 seed again. There will be bumps. We all know that. Nothing&#8217;s ever perfect during the season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Bailey spoke to <a href=\"\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Broncos Wire<\/a> from the Panini Prizm VIP lounge in San Francisco leading up to the Super Bowl. Bailey said it was &#8220;surreal&#8221; the first time he saw himself on a trading card, and it never gets old having fans ask him to sign cards, even in retirement. He especially enjoys when fans show him one of his cards with <a href=\"http:\/\/broncoswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/broncos\/2026\/02\/13\/nfl-champ-bailey-pushes-mike-shanahan-hall-of-fame\/88607839007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">a picture he&#8217;s never seen before<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Going forward, the hopes of <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Broncos<\/a> Country rest on the young shoulders of Nix, who will be coming off a <a href=\"http:\/\/broncoswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/broncos\/2026\/01\/29\/nfl-news-bo-nix-contradicts-sean-payton-on-injury\/88412136007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">successful surgery<\/a> on a broken bone in his ankle. Bailey knows this, and he had some words of encouragement to fans. &#8220;Bo Nix is healthy and getting better,&#8221; said Bailey. &#8220;The only thing that they are really missing is a consistent, dominant running attack. And if they can figure that part out, it&#8217;s going to be a hard team to beat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The start of the 2026 season is just around the corner. With a healthy Nix and a stifling defense, there is no telling how high the ceiling for this team is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Social: Follow\u00a0<a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BroncosWire\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thebroncoswire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/broncoswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/broncos\/2019\/08\/03\/denver-broncos-famous-fans-celebrities-include-paul-george-amy-adams\/79446413007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 14, 2026, 6:00 a.m. MT The story is just beginning for Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[95878,232,231,258,2426,7,6,95879,95880,95882,97108,95886,95893,95896,95888,95895,95906,100024,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-753666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbroncos","16":"tag-sstsnbroncos","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbo-nix","19":"tag-tagdenver-broncos","20":"tag-tagfacebook","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagpro-football-hall-of-fame","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-tagtwitter","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116074217708552567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753666","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=753666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}