School: Auburn / Oregon
Position: QB
Year: Redshirt Senior
The Bottom Line: I’m bypassing my typical paragraph for ‘The Good’ and paragraph for ‘The Bad’ here, because my evaluation of Bo Nix isn’t balanced enough to even to justify that. I’m not a fan; I anticipate he’ll be the lowest graded player that I deep dive on this year, which isn’t uncommon for a quarterback but is maybe a first for me when it comes to a potential Round 1 QB. I’ll give it to Nix that he’s legitimately an above-average athlete for a QB with solid creativity and a decent deep ball in his bag. But that’s about where the compliments stop. Simply put, I do not think that Nix has the arm of an NFL starting quarterback. There isn’t much behind it and he cannot layer throws whatsoever. It’s harsh, but it seriously felt like every time he stepped back to make a pro throw, it sucked. And when I say “pro throws,” Oregon’s offense featured as much quick game as any in the country. Nix has been a low aDOT merchant with so much of his statistical production coming off screens, and on bolder passing concepts Oregon still had WIDE open receivers on so many of Nix’s touchdown passes. Nix seldom made decisions for himself under center in Oregon’s offense, and even then there were multiple instances of him not letting plays develop. Nix basically short circuits when his primary read isn’t there, and he doesn’t handle pressure well either. His footwork in the pocket is very stiff. Nix did improve from 2022 to 2023, but that isn’t saying much. I had to remove games from his 2022 watch list because I couldn’t stand to watch more. Against the 2022 Georgia defense, it felt like every single throw beyond 5 yards was either picked off or should have been picked off – and he was nearly 23 years old at the time. Nix is a known commodity for college football fans as a five-year starter across two major programs, but that doesn’t make him a quality NFL quarterback prospect.
Grade: Day 3 Pick
Pro Comp: Colt McCoy
Games Watched:
- Mississippi State 2021
- Georgia 2022
- Washington State 2022
- Utah 2022
- Texas Tech 2023
- Colorado 2023
- Utah 2023
- USC 2023
- Washington 2023 (Pac12 Championship Game)
Epiblogue 