With a first-tier clash on the road against the Baltimore Ravens On Sunday, Bo Nix has the chance to prove to the NFL and the Denver Broncos that the future is now when it comes to his potential as a franchise quarterback. The Broncos drafted Nix 12th overall out of Oregon with hopes that he would be a future franchise quarterback.

However, halfway through his rookie campaign, Nix has already displayed “franchise” qualities. He became the first Broncos rookie quarterback to start the regular season opener since John Elway in 1983, winning the job by beating out two young veterans in training camp. And Nix has since established several other franchise brands.

Nix’s five wins have already surpassed the franchise’s rookie quarterback mark, surpassing Elway and Drew Lock (2019). His four rushing touchdowns so far rank second by a Broncos rookie quarterback behind only Tim Tebow’s six.

Nix’s 165 completions are the most ever by a Broncos rookie. If the season ended today, his 81.4 QB rating would rank second among franchise rookie signal-callers. But there’s still a long battle ahead this year, and if his last four games are any indication, that rating is going to go up.

The rookie is just getting started. Nix will easily finish with the most passing yards for rookies in team history.

In the Broncos’ Week 8 win over Carolina PanthersNix set a franchise record with 11 different receivers. The rookie has also established himself as a true dual-threat quarterback, as evidenced by his eight passing touchdowns and four rushing scores.

In fact, only four quarterbacks in NFL history have passed for eight touchdowns and rushed for at least four more scores in the first eight games, and Nix is ​​one of them, joining Dak Prescott (2016 ), Robert Griffin III (2012) and Cam Newton (2011). Believe it or not, Nix is ​​the only Broncos quarterback not named Elway to post at least two games in a season with two passing scores and a rushing touchdown. Elway owns the franchise mark with three of these games.

Add in the fact that Nix was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for October – only the third Broncos rookie to earn that honor and the first since running back Clinton Portis in 2002 – and it’s clear this kid is on a bright path.

But despite all those stats and records, Nix can prove this weekend to Broncos Country and the NFL as a whole that he’s already a franchise quarterback — still obviously in chrysalis, but a specimen nonetheless .

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The Broncos will face a Ravens team tied 5-3 in their home field on Sunday. This will be the most hostile environment Nix has faced thus far in his young career, and it won’t get any easier from there with a back-to-back road trip to face the hated. Kansas City Chiefs – the consecutive reigning world champions.

Opposite Nix on Sunday will be two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. If one were looking for a measuring stick to assess where Nix stands as a budding quarterback in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t get much clearer than facing Jackson.

If the Broncos emerge from Baltimore with six wins this season, it will be time to stand up and confidently proclaim that Nix is ​​now The Guy. And the nature of the game won’t matter.

Nix has defeated other perennial MVPs like Aaron Rodgers, winning about as ugly as possible at MetLife Stadium. In fact, the single ugliest quarterback win in recent memory was Tim Tebow’s performance against the Chiefs at Arrowhead in 2011.

Nix only ran 60 yards in a torrential downpour against the New York Jetsbut the Broncos won 10-9. Rodgers called his ignominious loss to upstart Nix “outlier“, but the kid simply made more plays than his veteran opponent when the chips were down. The four-time MVP should give the kid the credit he deserves.

The cool thing is that Nix doesn’t care about his stats. He cares about winning, and while some will cringe and wring their hands that wins are a quarterback stat, it’s an inescapable reality of the NFL. Wins and losses are the number one measure of an NFL quarterback, let’s be real.

Winning quarterbacks tend to stay, keep their jobs and rake in tens of millions of dollars, regardless of the style in which they do it. There are exceptions that prove the rule, like Alex Smith and the San Francisco 49ersor Alex Smith and the Chiefs, in the not-so-distant past.

I suppose you could also include Tebow and the Broncos in this conversation, although it’s a bit more of a stretch, given that Denver only won seven regular season games and fell back in the playoffs. But this victory in overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wildcard Round would, by rights, have been enough to solidify Tebow as the Broncos’ quarterback of the future without the Indianapolis Colts releasing the biggest free agent fish in NFL history a few months later.

Peyton Manning became a Bronco. Tebow was shipped to the Jets. Four division titles, two Super Bowl berths and a world championship later, the Broncos proved they made the right decision by going with Manning and dropping Tebow to a landing spot of his choosing.

Coming back to the present, if Nix can pull off a win over the Ravens, the debate over his franchise franchise should be put aside. Stylistically, we can expect the young quarterback to continue to develop and improve as the weeks and months go by, but a win in Baltimore would prove the kid’s mettle.

After being named Offensive Rookie of the Month, the Ravens will target Nix. He’ll have a big target on his back, but it won’t be the first time in a long playing career dating back 61 college games before he entered the NFL. As the pride of Auburn, Nix shouldered the burden of being a target in the SEC with aplomb, finishing as the conference’s rookie of the year despite the heat.

A loss won’t definitively disprove Nix’s franchise abilities, and it could be instructive as he navigates his rookie trial-and-error learning curve. But a win, oh, baby…that would silence his still-vocal critics and put to rest the bitter claims that he should have been a day two pick instead of the sixth first-round quarterback.

Go get them. I believe.

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