Broncos Veteran OT Explains When Bo Nix 'Captured' the Locker Room

You can point to a number of reasons why the Denver Broncos were able to defy expectations in 2024 and make the playoffs. But let's be honest; the first reason was Bo Nix.

Without Nix in the fold, Sean Payton would have put a competitively plausible team on the field, but odds are, Broncos Country would be sifting through the aftermath of a ninth straight season of missing the playoffs. Nix's rookie season was historic, and it signaled a true changing of the guard in the Mile High City.

Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey, who's been around the block and seen a lot since entering the league as a 2018 San Francisco 49ers first-round pick, instantly recognized "the right stuff" in Nix when the veterans joined the rookies for the offseason training program last spring.

“I think once we got around him in the building for a week or two—a couple weeks in April—you’re like, ‘Oh man, this kid is made of the right stuff,'" McGlinchey said on Monday after clearing out his locker. "Obviously, when you’re in shorts in April and May and doing OTA practices, you really can’t tell what kind of a football player he is really until we get into August, and when we put the pads on and all that kind of stuff."

When the preseason rolled around, Nix quickly set himself apart, earning the trust of his veteran teammates by his work ethic, which translated to production on the field. Nix would vanquish his veteran counterparts in the Broncos' three-way quarterback competition, becoming the first rookie to start a regular-season opener since John Elway in 1983.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows from there, though, as Nix struggled out of the gates. The Broncos got out to an 0-2 start, which had a lot of people wringing their hands and wondering if this was going to be another case of the here-we-go-agains.

But Nix's mettle and those intangibles shined through, allowing him to bounce back and find his first groove as the Broncos won back-to-back East Coast road games to get to 2-2 and even the slate.

From there, Nix took off, becoming the NFL's Rookie of the Month of October, and finishing with 3,775 and 29 touchdowns. He re-set all of Denver's rookie passing records, and tossed the second-most touchdowns by a rookie in NFL history. Again, McGlinchey credited Nix's work ethic as the ultimate difference-maker that not only set him apart but helped him earn the belief of the veterans around him in the locker room.

"I will say that from right away, Bo captured this locker room by the way that he works, by the person that he is and the way that he progressed," McGlinchey said. "It takes a lot of hard work to get better week in and week out. It takes a lot of focus, and a lot of the guys aren’t ready to commit themselves to that. I think Bo is certainly a shining example of that and it permeated through our locker room. The improvement from him going forward is just going to be exponential.”

Broncos CEO and co-owner Greg Penner saw how Nix won over his teammates, even from his 10,000-foot vantage.

"The players respond to him," Penner said of Nix on Wednesday. "His teammates love him."

Suffice it to say, nobody at Broncos HQ is worried about how Nix will approach the 2025 offseason. Payton said earlier this week that Nix already has an offseason plan in place to continue to improve and build on his historic rookie campaign.