The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday Night Football in Week 6, getting to 4-2 on the season, and keeping pace with the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC West lead.
However, following this win, Ryan Fitzpatrick on The NFL on Prime postgame blasted Bo Nix for his poor play, calling Nix out for being “almost disrespectful to the quarterback position for how he’s playing football.”
It’s quite the harsh criticism, but there are a few key statistics that prove Fitzpatrick right in his frustration with Nix. From the Broncos’ total offense in Week 6 to Nix’s history of playing the QB position, four key stats prove Fitzpatrick right to blast Nix.
4 stats that prove Bo Nix deserved to be blasted by Ryan Fitzpatrick
Broncos’ overall offensive struggles in overtime victory
Ben Solak of ESPN shared a brutal statistic from the Broncos’ Week 6 game that is hard to believe. It’s a very simple stat, but it highlights just how poor this offensive performance was.
“The Broncos’ 168 total yards of offense is the lowest yardage total in an overtime victory in NFL history,” Solak shared.
According to Solak, there isn’t another team in NFL history to have won in overtime and gained fewer yards than the Broncos did. While this isn’t all on Nix’s plate, he’s a major reason why this feat of NFL history has been made. It only gets worse from here.
Bo Nix’s longest completion on TNF vs. Seahawks
One of the reasons why the Denver offense was so lackluster is the lack of explosive plays. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell shared the one statistic that best summarizes the issues from Nix’s game, as his longest completion was incredibly disappointing.
“Bo Nix’s longest completion of the night traveled 7.6 yards in the air,” Barnwell shared. A first down is 10 yards away. Nix’s longest completion of the night wouldn’t even make it past the sticks on a typical 1st-and-10.
But that’s not the only statistic about where Nix was throwing the ball on Thursday to prove that Fitzpatrick was right to blast the Broncos’ QB.
Bo Nix’s 2026 season average pass length is worst in 20 years
Doug Clawson of CBS Sports shared another brutal statistic, this one maybe being the worst since it’s about more than just Thursday Night Football.
“There are 701 qualified QB seasons through 6 games in the past 20 years. 2026 Bo Nix ranks 701st out of 701 in average pass length (4.9 air yards per attempt),” Clawson shared. “His avg pass was thrown behind the line of scrimmage in the 2nd half on Thursday.”
This is a brutal statistic that shows this isn’t a one-week fluke for Nix. All season so far, Nix has been avoiding throwing the ball down the field. No QB in the last two decades has thrown the ball more shallow than Nix.
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Nix has a gross win-loss record in these kinds of games
Clawson shared another brutal statistic about Nix throwing the ball so shallow, with the Broncos’ QB having the best winning percentage when throwing the ball so shallow.
“Bo Nix has the best career record in NFL history in games with 6.0 yds/att or less (13-3, .813 win pct),” Clawson shared. “All other active QBs have a .283 win pct in starts with 6.0 yds/att or less.”
There isn’t another active QB in the league who can compare to Nix’s success when throwing 6.0 yards per attempt or less. While this might seem like a good statistic, it shows just how fortunate Nix has gotten with the Broncos.
If any other QB were to have such a shallow average yards per attempt, they would, more likely than not, have a losing record, if not be significantly worse than Nix’s .813 winning percentage.
Ryan Fitzpatrick was right to blast Bo Nix
While Fitzpatrick’s blasting of Nix was harsh, and it might’ve been surprising to hear him say Nix was disrespecting the quarterback position, these four stats might prove Fitzpatrick was right.
What Nix is doing this season, by throwing so short and being far too conservative with the downfield passing attempts, is not pretty quarterback play at all.
But, considering his success using such a strategy, it might not change anytime soon. But this kind of QB play could come back to haunt the Broncos, as it’s not sustainable.
