Jason La Canfora: NFL Preseason Week 2 Diary

The Denver Broncos nearly reached the Super Bowl with a backup quarterback starting the AFC Championship Game, yet somehow almost everyone has forgotten.

They are the rare team in the NFL with a strong recent playoff pedigree and a future Hall of Fame head coach, yet no one really talks about them or seems to take them seriously enough.

While some are getting caught up in the fact that a not-very-good Falcons team pushed them around in their first preseason game, the far bigger takeaway is that injured young starter Bo Nix returned to action against the Packers a week later and looked pretty damn good to me and others around the league.

Getting Nix a tune-up was huge after a sudden and shocking playoff injury ended his season. It also gave him an opportunity to adjust to a new voice in his head—literally—with Davis Webb now calling plays for Sean Payton.

Nix, who needed a clean-up procedure on his ankle in the spring, is poised for a leap in Year Two under Payton.

His downfield connection to new jitterbug receiver Jaylen Waddle was exactly what Broncos coaches wanted to see—Waddle throwing a double move in the seam and catching a perfect throw right in stride—as Nix quickly led a scoring drive and seemed totally at ease.

“It was like riding a bike,” Nix commented to the media after the game. It looked just as smooth.

This passing game is going to hit new plateaus this season.

It’s a stout offensive line and the Broncos also boast a top-five defense in the NFL. They don’t shudder facing Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in their division, and as one advance scout who has spent considerable time studying NFL rosters told me: “I think it’s the best team in the AFC.”

Rich Gannon: Bo Nix Is Going to ‘Take Off’

Former NFL MVP Rich Gannon, an analyst who studies draft prospects and follows the AFC West closely, fancies Denver to win the division, too, with Nix and Payton a big reason why.

“I did a lot of work on him coming out,” Gannon told me. “This guy had just about the most starts in college football history. His dad was a coach. He’s got everything you want—physical ability, mental toughness, athleticism. He checks every box. He’s got some juice and that swagger that Sean likes.

“I know they’re different types of quarterbacks in some ways, but I think Sean really sees a lot of Drew Brees in this guy. He can go out there and be that extension of Sean on the field and handle all the volume he throws at him. I really like him, Jason. I think this kid is going to take off.”

Having another coach running the headset calling plays will let Payton focus on macro things, like Denver’s inability to move defenses around using an under-center rushing attack.

Maximizing their under-center run game was a huge offseason self-study for Denver’s coaches, and Payton is keenly aware that the pendulum around the league is swinging back to the old-school I-formation stuff he has always believed in.

“I’m a little bit of a traditionalist in a few ways,” Payton told me before training camp, in the understatement of the summer. “And yet I’m never not wanting to look at new thoughts and ideas. So, you get a guy like Bo Nix who’s got a vast databank of RPO offense in the gun, and we’re going to do that. But there is a portion of what we want to do under center… and I do think you’re kind of seeing it trending back a little bit.”

More under-center runs and play-action passes are coming to Denver, and it will be great for Nix. His return this weekend was the single biggest development of this preseason slate.

Joe Milton Is More Than a Backup

A few years back I was shooting the bull with former Super Bowl quarterback and longtime NFL broadcaster Phil Simms about under-the-radar quarterbacks as roster cutdowns were coming (just as they will be next week). Simms couldn’t stop gushing about two talents—Malik Willis and Joe Milton.

Willis went on to become a coveted target in free agency, while Milton continues to open eyes. Many around the league believed Milton was showing too much juice in New England, leading the Pats to ship him to Dallas, where he continues to impress.

Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is going to great lengths to have you believe that Milton is in a knockdown fight with Sam Howell to back up Dak Prescott, but the personnel guys and analysts I talk to around the league aren’t buying it.

“Joe Milton is a starting quarterback in this league right now,” Simms has told me repeatedly.

Milton continues to meet every challenge. He carved up the Cardinals on Saturday night, and if Prescott went down for any reason this season, consider me among those who believe the Cowboys could win with Milton. At age 26, he would blossom if given a chance to play regularly.

Around the League Notebook

As far as notebook items go, if you have a fantasy draft coming up, I’ll give you the same advice I gave my kids: draft Panthers running back Jonathan Brooks higher than where the online draft rooms have him ranked.

He has a chance to be immensely productive, his injury setbacks appear to be behind him, and former Panthers GM Marty Hurney—a man who drafted Christian McCaffrey—has been raving about him to me for months, insisting he’s a hell of a back.

Meanwhile, Deshaun Watson’s whiny comments about getting booed over the weekend are being read across front offices as those of a guy who has already pocketed $185 million guaranteed in Cleveland to play just 19 games and wouldn’t mind sitting out to collect another $45 million from the sidelines. As one GM bluntly put it to me, “He doesn’t want to play,” though I doubt owner Jimmy Haslam falls for the ploy.

Over in New England, the Patriots finding a late-round backup quarterback who can double as an emergency punter and boom 50-yard kicks feels like the ultimate roster-fringe move.

And out in Pittsburgh, while the Steelers’ young signal-callers struggled again in their second preseason outing, expect the front office to hold onto those young arms for the active roster while dangling veteran Mason Rudolph on the trade block to fetch a future draft pick.