You know the Bo Nix pile-on is reaching epic proportions when former teammates are coming out of the woodwork to join in.
After NFL On Prime's Ryan Fitzpatrick called Nix's performance against the Seattle Seahawks "almost disrespectful to the quarterback position," former Denver Broncos quarterback Ben DiNucci decided to weigh in with an X post that he deleted shortly after.
"About time someone said it," DiNucci wrote in response to Fitzpatrick's comments. "Bo looks disinterested, checked out, and like there are 500 places he would rather be than on a football field every week. I am a fan of the Broncos and wish them the best, but I would rather watch paint dry right now than their offense play football."
DiNucci's Apology
Not long after deleting this post, DiNucci took to X to offer an apology of sorts for doing "a disservice to Bo and guys in that locker room who were my teammates."
"QB is the most scrutinized position in all of sports and takes a certain type of individual to be able to go out there week in and week out and ignore the noise and play ball," DiNucci wrote. "Bo is a winner, competitor, and leader of that team. Sure, he isn’t playing up to his standards right now, and he will be the first one to tell you that, but he doesn’t need former teammates and people who played the position speculating on what he’s going through/seeing."
— Ben DiNucci (@B_DiNucci6) October 16, 2026I put out a tweet this morning about Bo and the state of the Broncos offense
I deleted that tweet.. call me whatever you want idc it doesn’t bother me
I was speaking on things that I don’t know to be true and I get that’s part of my job now being in the media but it felt like…
There's more to DiNucci's apology, but that covers the bases. Someone must have gotten to the former journeyman because he changed his tune faster than a chameleon changes colors.
Nix strikes me as the forgiving type. But that doesn't mean he'll be forgetting DiNucci's shade any time soon.
DiNucci, 29, had two stints with the Broncos under head coach Sean Payton — one in 2023 and again this past January after Nix suffered a fractured ankle in the playoffs. DiNucci has since begun a media career after six years in the NFL — mostly as a backup or practice squad option.
DiNucci was originally a 2020 seventh round pick of the Dallas Cowboys out of James Madison. He has exactly three NFL games on his resume with one start.
The Bo Backlash
Nix has suddenly become the most hated man in the NFL. The Broncos are 4-2, weathering the gauntlet of their initial six-game schedule about as well as anyone could have hoped.
It's an impressive achievement, especially given the level of opposing offenses and defenses the Broncos have faced. All four of Denver's wins have come against opponents who won 12 or more games last season and made the playoffs.
However, Nix has not looked like his pre-ankle injury self this season. Whether it's due to the level of competition, the change in play-caller initially (first four games), the supporting cast around him, and/or lingering effects of his ankle injury, his performance has been nowhere close to what we saw in 2025.
We've seen flashes of the 2025 Nix, including in the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams, but he's looked hesitant and anxious, like he's overwhelmed for some reason and pressing. Nobody knows exactly what's going on with him, but he's still done enough to weather the initial six-game storm, thanks, in part, to some heavy lifting by the Broncos' defense.
Nix's Admission
Nix is aware of his and the offense's struggles, and while he claims he's unsure exactly why the Broncos have failed to launch on his side of the ball, he believes the schedule they've faced is part of it. But he also expressed confidence that he and the Broncos have time to turn the ship around.
"I think as we go, as we continue to go throughout the season, we’ll just find ways to get better and better," Nix said after Thursday night's 17-14 overtime win over Seattle. "I do think you have to [attribute it to] the schedule, just the first six games we knew were going to be tough. To come out 4-2 with really a complete team effort in all six games, it’s a complete team effort to get four of those wins... we’ll figure out ways to continue to improve.”
Nix often says he doesn't pay any attention to social media or outside noise, but the din is becoming louder by the week. I believe Nix's conservatism and hesitancy this season stem from his coaches preaching ball security in the face of game-planning for one top-ranked defense after another, but there's more to the story, for sure.
Something is going on between the ears, and it could simply be the lingering effects of his ankle injury. When a player suffers a major injury, it takes time for the physical injury to heal and for the psyche to recover and trust the body.
Those two healing processes don't always happen at exactly the same time, so even though Nix's ankle was healed enough for him to start training camp on time and not miss a single snap so far this season, it's possible he's not yet healed mentally. Granted, that's me donning the tin-foil and Freudian hat in equal measure, but it's just my take.
Bench Bo? Don't Make Me Laugh
Nix will eventually turn the corner on the ankle thing, and when he does, I expect to see him looking much sharper and more poised. For now, though, all the calls to bench him are absolutely not in the realm of the plausible — and I'm hearing them from fans and media alike.
Despite Nix's inconsistent and lackluster play so far, the Broncos are 4-2. Does anyone honestly believe that Jarrett Stidham or Sam Ehlinger would have stood a chance in any of these games?
Nix may look hesitant and the consistency still isn't there, but he's still got the clutch-gene. Not many quarterbacks could come back against Jacksonville and the Rams the way he did, and on the Broncos' two touchdowns drives against the Seahawks — which came in the first half and were the difference in that game — he made some great throws and converted some big third downs.
With Stidham, the Broncos would stand a decent chance with the scripted first 15-20 plays. After that, just as we saw in the AFC championship game, it would get sketchy real, real fast, and you wouldn't get the clutch-time production.
Let's face it: the Broncos view Nix as their franchise quarterback, and he's earned it. He won 24 games in his first two seasons, a division crown, and he had the Broncos on the doorstep of the Super Bowl before getting hurt.
The Broncos are trying to compete for a Super Bowl now and every year in the future. The last thing they're going to do is bench their young franchise quarterback whose confidence may be a bit shaken, only to risk exacerbating it to a point where he might not recover.
Nix remains the Broncos' best option at the moment. For that and many other reasons, Payton is not going to bench his quarterback.
The Takeaway
The Broncos are 4-2. In each of Nix's three seasons in Denver, he has defeated the defending Super Bowl champions.
The Broncos now get the benefit of a 'mini-bye,' which gives them three extra days to rest and prepare for Week 7's road trip to face the Arizona Cardinals. It's Denver's first chance to breathe a little bit since the onslaught of this season started, and hopefully it'll do Nix some good and offer Payton the chance to figure out his offense's run-game issues.
DiNucci shot from the hip and slammed a former teammate, painting with such broad strokes that everyone at Broncos HQ felt the brush.
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