As an NFL rookie, it’s hard not to get “drowned in install and new technique and new fundamentals, new coaches telling you different things,” Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said.

But that was last season for Nix, when he started every game for the Broncos. The former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn standout feels better prepared to tackle the challenges of the NFL in 2025 because he’s “been there, done that.”

“I don’t have to worry about what certain looks are or what, as crazy as it sounds, where we’re going for the locker room or where we’re going for the stretch,” Nix said. “I mean, I know it. I can get there and do it, knock it out. Now I can focus on the next-level things and the details, not really the overall picture. A lot of the times as a rookie, you just don’t want to look like an idiot. Now you can go out there and look a lot better than an idiot, so I’m excited for Year 2, excited for this football team. I really like where we’re at right now.”

Denver posted a 10-7 record during the 2024 regular season and went to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 in Nix’s rookie year. For his second season, Nix said his preparation has been fueled by “the fear of not being ready, not being enough for the team.”

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“I don’t think the challenges will change,” Nix said. “I think I’m just different, so I think that’s the good part of this year. And I don’t want to take it for granted that I am a year ahead because most guys are a lot of years ahead of me, so I know I got a long way to go, but I’m excited to go there.”

Nix played well enough in 2024 to land at No. 64 in the “NFL Top 100” for 2025. The annual player poll by NFL Films is in its 15th year of its summer rundown of the league’s best 100 players.

“I’m kind of on both sides with it,” Nix said. “I think it’s obviously a cool honor because that’s a your-peers thing. That’s guys you play. But at the same time just the way I think, the way I am motivated, I want to continue to get higher, and not even for the ranking. You know, it doesn’t really matter what you’re ranked. It’s just an internal standard that I have that I want to be the best in the world, and I know there’s a lot of guys that I’m competing for that with, and you know I’m not going to stop until I at least give it my best try.”

In preparing for this second NFL season, Nix visited with Drew Brees, a 13-time Pro Bowl quarterback who retired after the 2020 season. Brees played 14 of his 20 NFL seasons with Sean Payton as his coach. Payton is now Nix’s coach with the Broncos.

“It was fun,” Nix said. “Anytime you can spend some time with a guy like that, with that experience and just that mind and the knowledge of the game and just his routine and what he was able to do, more than anything is just sitting down and talking to him. …

“What I’m trying to do with a guy like that is figure out, ‘Hey, what are some things, if you were in a bad spot, what would you do here? If you were going through this, what would you do here?’ And just seeing how they handle things, seeing how they handle situations and experiences. And that’s for our job. We talk about leading and all that kind of stuff. That’s the name of the game.”

Nix’s second season starts on Sept. 7 against the Tennessee Titans. Before that, the Broncos have preseason games against the San Francisco 49ers on Aug. 9, Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 16 and New Orleans Saints on Aug. 23.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.