FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted June 3 Our Oregon Ducks football program lost some huge pieces of the team’s identity this past offseason, and it’s rare that you can say the team looks completely fine after losses at quarterback at WR1. Fortunately, Dan Lanning immediately got on the horn and turned this team around in the offseason. Now, we look to the league and how players of this ... Oregon Ducks Football: Will Bo Nix Start? | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Our Oregon Ducks football program lost some huge pieces of the team’s identity this past offseason, and it’s rare that you can say the team looks completely… 1 Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 2 Share Posted June 3 (edited) Thanks, Alex. Imagine a Ducks top 10 QB and WR in the league? Dan Fouts 3rd round draft pick, No. 64, in 1973. He retired in 1987 and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1993. Chargers coach Don Coryell and Dan revolutionized the NFL downfield passing game. Ahmad Rashad was the 1st round, No. 4 pick of the Saint Louis Cardinals in 1972. An RB at Oregon from Tacoma, Washington, Rashad switched to WR in the pros and played in 4 Pro Bowls. Both men went on to NFL broadcasting careers, Everything I'm reading from Pro Football Focus and the other 'experts,' say it will be all systems GO for BO to start for the Broncos. There is a lot to be excited about while waiting (SIGH) for both the Ducks and the NFL seasons to begin. Denver's opening regular season game comes on 9/8/24 on the road in Seattle. Go Ducks! Vanquish the Vandals. Autzen Stadium on 8/31/24. Thanks again. Edited June 3 by Jon Joseph 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 No. 3 Share Posted June 3 From a read on Bleacher Report. Just going to drop this here for OBD's to ponder next year's Broncos Team. Bo Nix, Denver Broncos 5 OF 5 Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Where They'll Succeed in Denver's Scheme There's always a degree of flexibility when talking about Sean Payton's scheme. Payton has core concepts, same as anyone else, but his offense has been so many different things over the years. The early Drew Brees offenses were different from the late Drew Brees offenses. Teddy Bridgewater's spot starts in New Orleans looked nothing like the year Jameis Winston was the starter, neither of which looked anything like when Taysom Hill was behind center. With that in mind, it's better to look at Bo Nix through the lens of which version Payton offense to expect, not what the Payton offense can be in totality. The Bridgewater iteration with a dash of the Hill package is probably the closest approximation to what we'll get with Nix in Denver. Boring, I know, but that's the reality when a team takes the sixth quarterback off the board — a fifth-year senior, at that. Nix is an awesome quick game operator. Pre-snap, Nix does very well to pick apart basic coverage shells. He knows which matchups to attack and where his receivers have a leverage advantage relative to the coverage at hand. Nix executes on that information without hesitation, and he's got a lightning quick throwing motion to make good on it. All of the one- and three-step drop concepts that Payton wants to spam in this offense will be available. RPOs are a major tool for Nix for the exact same reasons. Nix does well to know who he is keying on and how to make the right decision. Likewise, Nix's snappy throwing motion makes it easy for him to go from having the ball in the belly of the running back to suddenly being halfway to the receiver. There's a world where Nix is quicker on the draw in RPO situations than everyone but Tua Tagovailoa. Payton's other use for Nix will be his legs. Nix is a good athlete. There's no one trait that pops off the screen, but he checks all of the boxes. Nix has a thick frame with good balance. He's quick and responsive when maneuvering tight spaces while also being fairly dangerous when he gets to stride out in the open field. Nix ran for 1,613 yards and 38 touchdowns over his five seasons in college, including a 510-yard, 14-touchdown campaign in 2022. Nix is at least the athlete young Andy Dalton was, likely better. Where They'll Need to Improve in Denver's Scheme The flip side of the things with Nix is which aspects of the Payton offense he may take off the table. Payton has largely enjoyed his offenses being under center. Late-stage Brees had to shift away from it a little, but for the most part, Payton has wanted to be a team that can go under center and marry the run game with the passing game. All good offensive minds want to get there at the end of the day. Payton is no different. Nix is coming from the polar opposite of an under center offense. While Nix did get some under center experience at Auburn, his days at Oregon were almost purely played from four-wide shotgun formations. It was a spread-and-shred offense. Oregon's offense didn't do a whole lot of shifting or motioning, either. They had their set of core plays and that was that. To say the least, Payton wants to put a lot more on Nix's plate than he ever had at Oregon. The ideal Payton offense requires a quarterback who can comfortably play from under center, handle having motions in the offense, and manage multiple play calls at once to get the offense into the right look. Nix may get there in time, but it's probably unreasonable to expect him to handle it all in his rookie season. Nix also needs to attack the middle of the field better if he wants to unlock the best of the Payton offense. To be clear, it's not that Nix struggles when he does throw the middle of the field. Nix's arm strength clears the bar and he's plenty accurate. More accurate than almost anyone else in the class, if anything. The problem is Nix was not asked to throw the middle of the field very often at Oregon. In turn, there's not many examples of Nix anticipating a tight window over the middle and threading it with confidence. Those moments are so few and far between on his college film. It's not always easy to teach quarterbacks to be more aggressive and confident either. Taming a quarterback is one thing, but getting them to be more aggressive than they are inclined to be is a tough ask. Even a coach as good as Payton will likely struggle to get that out of Nix, at least early on. Stat Predictions 17 G, 64% CMP, 3200 YDS, 17 TD, 11 INT; 350 RUSH YDS, 4 TD Realistic Goal / Outcome Nix does not need to be a revelation. He doesn't need to win Rookie of the Year or blow anyone away. Nix primarily needs to be accurate and smart with the football. That we can certainly expect from him. To put it over the top, Nix would need to show some degree of flexibility in the way Payton can run the offense, which would be both a diversion from what Nix was at Oregon and what Payton's scheme was last year given the constraints Russell Wilson put on the offense. Obviously, some of the narrative is changing about Bo. Have NO DOUBTS on his ability to pickup Sean's offense and be able to execute it at a high level. Going to be a fun football season for us rabid Duck Fans! Go Quackers! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Duck No. 4 Share Posted June 3 I’ve watched Zach Wilson since he was at BYU and if it weren’t for Covid, he would have never been close to being the 2nd overall pick. In my opinion Bo should easily win the starting job for the Broncos. I’m excited to watch him play in the pros! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 5 Share Posted June 3 Maybe the Broncos can hire the Chargers team doc to administer to the starting QB if it's not Bo. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanLduck No. 6 Share Posted June 4 While we have had excellent stars in the NFL, the thought of Nix and Franklin lighting things up on the same team, like wow! It makes my mouth water. And in the same conference as Justin! Bo's success at Oregon surely influenced Gabriel (as did the Marcus connection) to head west. Bo doing well can only help aid our recruiting. Already we have an amazing qb room, Akilil Jr coming, and maybe the #1 WR in the nation! With coach Lanning, our amazing facilities, the best NIL group in the country, now a part of the B1G, the Nike connection, and former stars excelling all over the league... ...man, the future looks impressive. And the future is now! Is it Aug 31st yet? 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
