Broncos starting a rookie QB in Week 1 is quite rare in team history
Broncos starting a rookie QB in Week 1 is quite rare in team history
The Denver Broncos used the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix and many fans and analysts have already anointed him as the team’s QB1. Some, such as NFL Network’s Marc Ross, see it as a foregone conclusion that Nix opens the season as the Broncos’ starter.
If that winds up being the case, it would be just the third time in team history that the Broncos have started the season with a rookie quarterback and the first time in 41 years. The only other quarterbacks to begin the season as the Broncos’ starting QB during their rookie year were John Elway in 1983 and Mickey Slaughter in 1963.
Both of those quarterbacks had rocky starts to their careers as well.
Slaughter, a seventh-round pick in the 1963 draft out of Louisiana Tech, began that season as the team’s starter during their AFL days. He struggled, going 1-5-1 as a starter and setting a Broncos rookie record that still stands to this day by throwing five interceptions in one game.
He lasted just four years in the league and finished his career with a 2-15-2 win-loss record.
Elway of course went on to do great things, but his rookie career started badly after he was named the Week 1 starter in 1983. In Week 1 of that season against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was just 1-of-8 passing for 14 yards with an interception. The following week against the Baltimore Colts, the team he spurned in the draft, he was 9-of-21 for 106 yards.
In both games, Steve DeBerg had to come on in relief for Elway and helped the Broncos win both games. As a rookie, Elway completed just 47.5 percent of his throws for 1,663 with seven touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The team made the playoffs that season, but that was mostly in spite of the rookie passer.
Not since then have the Broncos started a rookie quarterback in Week 1.
In 2006, the Broncos took Jay Cutler with the No. 11 overall pick in the draft, a surprise to many at the time since they had Jake Plummer. But Cutler wouldn’t start a game until December of that season.
In 2019, the Broncos drafted Drew Lock in the second round but a thumb injury sustained in the preseason helped ensure that Joe Flacco would open the season as the starter. Lock made his first start in November of that year.
Nix could very well be the team’s starter in Week 1 of this season. All he has to do is beat out Zach Wilson and Jarrett Stidham. But that will be a tall order for a team that has missed the playoffs in each season since 2015.
While Nix may be the most experienced college quarterback of all time and a seamless fit in Sean Payton’s offense, he still has a lot of odds and a ton of history to overcome.