In Week 2, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to stifle the Denver Broncos offense led by rookie quarterback Bo Nix en route to a 13-6 victory to move to 2-0 on the year. And according to recent reports, the Steelers defense didn’t leave the game overly impressed by Nix by any means.
According to James Palmer of Underdog Fantasy, Steelers cornerbacks were laughing about the Broncos’ limited playbook that they had for Nix as he progresses through his rookie season.
“I was just in the Steelers locker room going against a rookie in Bo Nix in his second career start,” said Palmer on the 89 podcast with Steve Smith. “I’m talking to the Steelers corners and they’re sitting there laughing in the corner going ‘We knew the playbook was this big [gestures small fingers]. We know they weren’t going to take any shots, and we know what he likes to do. They’re going to make it easy on him to go here and here, and that’s all we had to worry about.’”
It’s not exactly a secret that Broncos head coach Sean Payton has limited the playbook for Nix early on in his career. Broncos players, including wide receiver Marvin Mims, have admitted as much in interviews thus far this season.
Pittsburgh clearly caught onto the limited playbook and capitalized on it in a huge way defensively.
If other teams are catching onto the Broncos’ playbook, or at least the fact that it is limited, we could really see the Broncos struggle early on this season until Nix learns a bit more of the offense.
In the meantime, the Broncos will look to get their first win against another tough test in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have gotten out to a 2-0 start to the season in their own right.
