Bo Nix is 18-3 in his last 21 starts (!).

Let's not forget: the Broncos only won 18 games TOTAL from 2017-19. From 2020-22, Denver won just 17 games over that span.

The Broncos had a great defense in most of those seasons. It wasn't enough, as we can all remember.

Bo will improve, though it may be incremental and excruciating. He'll get there. Even amid his imperfections, he's done enough to win. Despite his slump, he's conjured some signature Mile High Magic in two of his four wins this season.

The Broncos walked the desert for eight long years after Peyton Manning retired. I won't take winning for granted. We know the Broncos certainly aren't.

None of this is to excuse Bo's overall subpar play. But within the context of his sample size and .700 career winning percentage, there's plenty of reason to believe he'll turn it around once his psyche catches up to his ankle's physical recovery. Am I trippin' on Nix?

When Brentson Buckner became Allen’s position coach in 2020, he asked the team’s third-round pick from the prior year what he wanted to achieve. Allen’s response was unequivocal.

“I want to be the best,” the defensive end replied.

Allen, now in his fourth season with the Broncos, will return to State Farm Stadium on Sunday for the first time in a regular-season setting since he joined Denver as a free agent in 2023. He will do so as the fully realized version of the player he has worked tirelessly to become since he began his career in the Arizona desert. He’ll do so as a major reason the Broncos are 4-2, despite their offense’s stuck-in-the-mud start to the season.

“He is one of the best interior players in our game,” said Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey, who had his hands full with Allen during that 2021 game as a 49er.

No interior defensive lineman has been more disruptive this season than Allen, whose 4 1/2 sacks are the most among players at his position. His 127 quarterback hits since he left Arizona are 30 more than the next-closest defender during that span, Myles Garrett. He has 11 quick pressures this season (under 2 1/2 seconds), according to Next Gen Stats, which are the most among interior defenders. And he has elevated his performance against the run this season to go with the best pass-rushing start of his career.The path to this point was murky at times early in Allen’s career. He missed all but four games as a rookie in 2019 with a neck injury. After playing as a 4-3 defensive end at Boston College, he needed time to build the frame necessary to slot inside in Joseph’s 3-4 scheme. After one particularly rough game against the Los Angeles Rams in 2020, Allen told one of the Cardinals’ defensive assistants in the parking lot that he was sure he’d be cut. He told his then-fiancee — and now wife — Molly that he was prepared to begin a career in finance.

But that mental low point was more an illustration of the exacting demands Allen had for himself than it was a view of the player within Arizona’s building. Buckner had been around the NFL long enough to know that Allen’s IQ for the game was rare. The assistant would routinely field late-night phone calls from the young defensive lineman — current Broncos D-line coach Jamar Cain has relayed the same experience — with detailed questions that sprouted after he reviewed his notes from the day’s meetings or after he reviewed additional film at home.

“That became his superpower,” Buckner said. “Knowing what everybody on the field does and knowing what the offense can and can’t do against you. Then, he started to apply the technique and build on the technique. He just always wanted to work. As a coach, Zach would always challenge you to help him get better. He’s the guy that calls your phone at 9 o’clock at night because he sees something on film that we can exploit or he wants an answer to.”

Allen has routinely said playing alongside future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt gave him access to a wealth of information that helped him develop in Arizona. The Broncos’ All-Pro still marvels at how “generous” Watt was with his time at that final stage in his career.

“He was so selfless with his time in showing me both the process of how to be a pro,” Allen said, “and then also all the technique stuff. … He didn’t have to do that.”

Can we please give Singleton the credit he deserves as Mr. Bronco?

Will the Broncos trade for Jonathan Taylor? It seems unlikely, but it's possible.

Then again maybe they don't need to: Jonah Coleman returned to practice yesterday. So did Patrick Surtain.

Denver's getting healthy ahead of Arizona, and also ahead of the Chiefs showdown in Week 8.

I’ve been a broncos fan all my life and also born and raised in AZ, I used to go with my brothers to the annual week 4 preseason game the broncos and cards would have, even though nobody would really play it was a always a fun time.

Well now there’s only three weeks of preseason and that game isn’t played anymore. I got a ticket for the game this Sunday and am so pumped but wil be going along cause me and my brothers aren’t as close as we once were, if anyone is going to the game come say what’s up, I’ll be in section 109 and down to have a beer.

Hey all,

My daughter and I will be flying down to AZ tomorrow to attend the game on Sunday. I don't have tickets yet as I thought that it was best to wait until the week of to see if AZ fans had already started giving up and flood the market with their tickets. Well, I'm looking today and we are talking $150 for nose bleeds in the corner or over $200 to be between the 30s but still nose bleeds.

Did I wait too long or not long enough? If you are going, what are you paying and where are you sitting?

Thanks!

My ultimate goal is just to converse about Bo Nix. I wanted to compare where Bo Nix is to other relevant QBs at the same point in their careers.

I personally don't think he's the guy. He's a hell of an athlete and I love his character. But my casual fan eye test tells me he's not the one. So I wanted to see some data to see if I'm just being dumb. My runway is through the end of next year, not giving him the 5th year option. If he plays well on the back half of this year and in the first half of year 4, re-sign him. But the 5th year option is off the table at this point. And if he finishes this year poorly, a QB needs to be considered in the draft, depending on who's out there. He has to have one hell of a turnaround this year, which I am hoping for. I think it can be done. But it has to change.

My original post didn't follow rules with AI, my apologies. The low effort did miss a few factors like the first few years of Rodgers sitting behind Favre, similar with Tom Brady on year 1, injuries to a couple guys so I threw out those seasons, etc. I compiled the data manually through profootballreference. One of you also said passer rating is junk to use as a judge, fair enough. I changed it to QBR. Brady, Ben R, Brees, and Manning are all affected by lack of QBR data for this time period. Ben R's average is only his 3rd season as that was how far back QBR goes. But his passer rating was higher in his first 2 seasons than his 3rd so I assume his QBR was higher too.

This is the average QBR for first 3 years played of all these QBs. The smallest amount of games per season considered was 9 for Purdy (3rd year as starter), 10 for Burrow (rookie season), 10 for Stafford (rookie season), 11 for Allen (rookie season), 11 for Brees (2nd season starting).

This is all SB winning QBs for the past 25 years (except for E Manning, Foles and Brad Johnson, I'm not going to compare Nix to them) and some other relevant and current QBs thrown into the mix.

I don't think "he's 28-12 as a starter" or "he's 4-2 this season" is an argument. And if you argue the record specifically this year so far, we don't watch football the same way. He is not the team. The team owns the record, not Bo Nix. It's taking credit away from some of the all time best defensive play we've seen in Denver to apply the record to Nix. Winning 11 one score games last year is not solely because of Bo Nix. If anything, he's some of the reason we had to win it that way and didn't come out further ahead. Not one of the QBs on this list had the defense that Bo Nix has had the first 3 years of their career. Flacco is the closest to it, IMO and that defense peaked in his 6th year.

I looked up some other QBs with great starts to their career outside of this list. If you really want to consider his record, then you should consider that Andy Dalton went 30-18 his first 3 years and made the playoffs in each. His average QBR those 3 years? 50.7... I don't want an Andy Dalton.

The chart is data I manually retrieved. If you think there is a good way to compare him to others or judge his performance, tell me, I'll put in a little more work if it makes sense.