When the Denver Broncos opened the season against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Bo Nix became the first rookie quarterback since 1983 to do that for the team. The last guy to do it? Some guy named John Elway.
Since then, four decades have passed and the Broncos have had a slew of different quarterbacks. The game has changed greatly, heck, the world has changed greatly. But it's still fun to take a look at things like this and put them under a microscope.
So how does the first career start for Nix compare to the one made by Elway way back in 1983?
Comparing first career starts of Bo Nix and John Elway
| QB | Date | Completions | Attempts | Yards | Comp. % | TD | INT | QB Rating |
| John Elway | 9/4/1983 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 12.5 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Bo Nix | 9/8/2024 | 26 | 42 | 138 | 61.9 | 0 | 2 | 30.1 |
In his first game, Elway completed just one pass, a 14-yard toss to Rick Upchurch. He turned the ball over twice and ended up being benched by Dan Reeves in favor of Steve DeBerg who came on in relief and led the Broncos to a 14-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Broncos weren't as fortunate on Sunday. Though you could say that Nix had better numbers, his 3.3 yards per completion is beyond anemic and his team took the loss despite him also rushing for a late touchdown.
You can try and look at this game with a positive spin. Nix got some good experience and there was plenty that can be looked at on film and learned from. However, it was an overall bad performance regardless of where you want to place that blame. I choose to put it on the team's lack of playmakers in the passing game.
Nix will get his next chance when the Broncos host the Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0) in Week 2.
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