In yet another enticing Sunday Night Football storyline, Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix will go head-to-head for the first time in his young career with Los Angeles Rams counterpart and potential future Hall-of-Famer, Matthew Stafford.
It ā the 25-year-old signal-caller versus the 38-year-old veteran ā is perhaps the storyline that Nix is most anticipating ahead of the primetime Week 3 clash.
āItāll be a really fun game because of that,” Nix told reporters on Wednesday. “Iāve always watched him, looked up to him and admired the way he plays the game. Heās just extremely smart. He has a really strong arm, heās just always been fun to watch. As our quarterback room, since Iāve been here for the last couple years, weāve enjoyed watching their offense and watching him play. So itāll be fun to go against him. Itāll be fun to meet him for the first time, I havenāt ever met him. But at this point in the league, you feel like you play a great quarterback every Sunday. So for me, heās another guy that I can cross off the list that I could say I watched in person, and I think itāll be a fun battle between our two teams.ā
Now in his 18th NFL season, Stafford continues to perform at a high level for who many believe is a Super Bowl favorite in the Rams. In Week 2, the former Super Bowl champion threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns as Los Angeles, despite missing No. 1 receiver Puka Nucua, easily dispatched the star-crossed New York Giants.
āItās another challenge, we understand that,” Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II admitted Wednesday. “Obviously, heās a vet, heās been doing it for a long time. He understands schematically, offensively reading coverages, putting the ball in the right areas. He has all the intangibles that you look for in a quarterback, so itās going to be a great challenge, but weāre going to be ready come Sunday.ā
For Nix’s part, the third-year passer overcame a rough end-zone interception in Week 2, completing 22-of-31 attempts for 288 yards, a touchdown, and the pick as Denver rallied to beat the Jaguars. He recorded his fifth-career victory when trailing by double digits, tying for second-most in the NFL since 2024.
“We had two really good drives that we just didnāt score points on,” Nix said. “I think that in the second half, that translated to touchdowns and we got a good lead. So we just have to focus on those things to get the ball in the end zone. Then I think that is really what we could look like as a team. If we score points there, weāre in the 30s [points scored] and itās a really good outing for us against a really good team. So we just have to find ways to finish the drive, score in the red zone, convert on a few more third downs so we can get to the red zone. Itās just complete football.ā
The Nix-Stafford face-off is intriguing, but not one that’ll actually happen on a down-to-down basis. That’s a much different situation in the case of Denver having to contend with unretired Rams defender Aaron Donald, who played his first NFL game in nearly three years during last week’s drubbing of the Giants.
While delaying his inevitable induction into Canton, Donald finished his return game with three tackles, one tackle for loss, and one quarterback pressure across 32 snaps, largely knocking the rust off after such a long period of inactivity.
Nix knows that once the rust comes off, Donald could morph back into his prior eight-time All-Pro self, which is a terrifying thought for the Broncos’ offense ā but a thrilling one all the same to its leader.
āFor a guy like that whoās played so much football at a dominant level, if anything, he could be better because heās got some good rest,” Nix said on Wednesday. “Itās exciting to play the greats, it always is. I know heās a really good football player, and heās going to provide a challenge that we havenāt necessarily faced before. Heās literally one of the best at his position of all time, so you donāt play those many Sundays. Heās going to be a good player, heās going to play more and more as the season goes with rep count. Iām sure heās just getting back in the swing of things, but a dominant player for a long time. So I honestly donāt expect anything different, we just have to limit the time heās dominant.ā
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleĀ
