Expert Analysis
4/25/24
4 min read
Bo Nix 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Denver Broncos QB
The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Bo Nix.
Bo Nix's 2024 NFL Combine Results
- Height: 6'1"
- Weight: 218 pounds
- 40-yard dash: DNP
- 10-yard split: DNP
- Vertical jump: DNP
- Broad jump: DNP
Bo Nix 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Strengths
- Good size with live athletic feet and an above-average arm. He has the ability to move within the pocket and make throws.
- Enough arm strength to drive the ball with the needed velocity at the intermediate levels inside and outside.
- Decisive within the context of the Oregon pass game. He played with rhythm, timing and good ball placement.
- Showed the processing to work through progressions comfortably coming to third reads and checkdowns.
- Drove the ball well into zone windows at the intermediate levels. He showed excellent timing and anticipation.
- Made some outstanding deep throws with trajectory and ball placement. He is effective on play action shot plays.
- Effective on designed boot action pass game, getting outside the pocket and making good throws on the move.
- Gives an offense-designed QB run game. He is a good, loose athlete who must be accounted for in the zone read game.
- Second reaction playmaking dimension to his game. He made big plays on the move, throwing and running.
- 2023 – Showed an understanding of manipulating and moving safeties with his head and eyes to create spacing.
- Played with a calm helmet. He never seemed hurried or frenetic in the pocket. Overall, he is a comfortable pocket QB.
- Overall, there was a consistent and high-level efficiency to Nix re: drop, set, delivery, reads, precise ball location.
- Flashed the timing and anticipation to make window throws vs. zone coverage. He executed hi-low concepts well.
- Extensive experience with RPO concepts. He showed a good feel for reading run-pass defenders and making the right decision.
Weaknesses
- At times, he drifted off the mid-line when there was no pressure. That resulted in him often throwing without a firm base.
- Tendency to often to be a beat late on well-defined throws where route concept cleanly attacked the coverage.
- 2022 tape showed concerns with timing and anticipation. He was inconsistent in executing within structure.
- Pocket vision is a question. Did Nix process what he needed to make the right throw to the right receiver?
- Reps he left throws on the field. Was that a function of vision? Did he not process it cleanly? Discomfort in the pocket?
- 2023 – Arm strength average. The ball does not jump out of his hand. He will be evaluated differently in the process.
- Almost no experience in two years at Oregon with under center play action (seven snaps in 2023). It’s a learned trait.
NFL Transition
What stands out the more you watch Nix is there is a decisiveness and efficiency to his game. He is a ball distributor in a well-designed and well-schemed passing game, but he also gives you a second reaction playmaking dimension.
His 2023 tape showed meaningful improvement in some of the issues that showed up on his 2022 tape, particularly the speed with which he processed and delivered the football with timing and precise ball placement. That really stood out when throwing into tight zone window. Nix walked a fine line between playing from the pocket, allowing the pass game to work for him, and leaving the pocket prematurely. Although, he made throws outside the pocket when he did that.
Nix is a comfortable player executing the pass game, and he was an easy thrower, making the right kind of throw to the right receiver at the right time despite not having a power arm. His arm strength could be an issue for some evaluators, given that Nix cannot really drive the ball with velocity. The question/discussion is how much of a factor is that in the overall transition and projection to the NFL?
I could see a coach like Sean Payton believing Nix could run his offense effectively with the timing and rhythm element that is foundational, making power arm strength not a prerequisite.
Other Notes
Nix played two years at Oregon after spending three years at Auburn as the starting QB (34 SEC starts). he finished his college career with 60 starts (most in NCAA history). Nix stayed in-state to play at Auburn as Alabama’s Mr. Football and one of the highest rated QB recruits in the nation before his graduate transfer to Oregon. In 2023, Nix was the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year
In 2022, Nix ran a highly schemed well-defined passing game that presented clean reads based on play design and route concepts. Empty formations were a featured part of the Oregon pass game. In 2022, Nix was outstanding on first down play action: 54-68, 9.91 yards per attempt, six touchdowns with one interception (all but five dropbacks came out of the shotgun).
In 2023, you again saw NFL route concepts with reading progressions that Nix is now familiar with and has a solid understanding of (bunch, flood concepts, hi-low concepts, snag-flat, high red zone dino, 4 strong, back shoulder throws).
Nix a lot of experience in his two seasons at Oregon working out of empty formations, and he has been highly efficient. Terrance Ferguson's 15 yard TD vs. USC was a big-time throw by Nix. Troy Franklin's 20 yards vs. Arizona State was an outstanding tight zone window throw with high-level coverage recognition and anticipation and precise ball placement.
Tez Johnson's 32 yards vs. Oregon State was another outstanding tight zone window throw with high-level nticipation and precise ball placement. This time, he showed subtle pocket movement to slide away from front-side pressure.
