Sean Payton says Broncos can win Super Bowl, and he expects Bo Nix to become a top-5 QB
After going 10-7 with a rookie quarterback in 2024 and qualifying for the playoffs as a Wild Card team, Payton expects quarterback Bo Nix and the entire squad to take a big leap forward this fall.
'The short-term goal is winning the division,' Payton said in a recent interview with Yahoo's Charles Robinson. 'But this is a team capable of winning the Super Bowl. I've coached six teams that I thought could win the Super Bowl. Some went to championship games, some to the playoffs. This is my seventh team that I think has that.'
Denver had one of the best defenses in the NFL last season, led by cornerback Pat Surtain, the league's Defensive Player of the Year. This offseason, they added linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga during free agency and used their first-round draft pick to select cornerback Jahdae Barron.
On offense, the Broncos' main weakness in 2024 was the ground game, and that should be improved this year after the team signed veteran running back J.K. Dobbins and used a second-round pick to add RJ Harvey.
And, of course, Nix appears poised to take the next step after impressing as a rookie.
'He's going to be one of the top four or five quarterbacks in the league the next two years,' Payton told Robinson. 'That's what we're seeing right now. He doesn't take sacks. He's got exceptional arm strength. … He threw the longest ball — [67] air yards against Cincinnati. He can run. He can throw in funny body angles.'
Nix topped 4,200 yards from scrimmage last fall and scored 34 total touchdowns and only took 24 sacks. Payton seems to think the QB will take a big leap over the next two seasons, and the coach has set Super Bowl expectations for his roster going into the 2025 campaign.
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