The biggest thing wrong with quarterback Bo Nix is Sean Payton’s big, fat mouth.

The angst in Broncos Country over a team that looks nothing like a Super Bowl contender and a quarterback who appears far from elite is the fault of a head coach whose arrogance knows no bounds.

“We feel like we’re a good football team,” Payton said Monday.

Well, so far this, Payton has been a better spin doctor than football coach. 

Bonehead penalties and blown leads in the fourth quarter have cost the Broncos dearly in two defeats. That’s not good. Those are signs of a poorly coached team.

From yapping about the Super Bowl on Day One to boasting Nix is going to be an elite NFL quarterback, Payton has been living a lie, while spreading non-stop nonsense.

At winning time, the Broncos wilt.

“When the season’s over with,” Payton said, “let’s look at this team and say: ‘Hey, can they finish?’’’ 

We shall see. Yes, indeed.

So far, Payton has oversold this team. And under-delivered.

We don’t take kindly to that kind of balderdash in Broncos Country.

The early chapters of Denver’s 2025 NFL season have been filled with regret and underscored by opportunities lost.

The team’s 1-2 start, however, is only a disaster if you jumped on the hype train driven by Payton.

Payton is a storyteller who loves to hear himself talk. And know the worst part of this tale? It’s Nix who is paying the heftiest price for Payton’s swashbuckling hubris.

When everything’s clicking, Nix can be a top 10 quarterback in this league. When off his game, he’s a fringe NFL starter, struggling to escape the bottom 10.

Nix will have better days than the 23-20 loss to the Chargers. He needs to clean up an annoying habit of overthrowing the deep ball, evidenced when he misfired by inches on long passes that fell incomplete off the fingertips of Marvin Mims and Courtland Sutton.

“That would be like 50th on my to-do list,” Payton said Monday, dismissing the essential truth of Nix losing a deft touch that’s needed in the clutch. Let me remind Payton: Didn’t somebody once say football is a game of inches, and inches make champions?

If memory serves, it was Vince Lombardi, a far greater coach than Payton ever will be.

In a sport where the difference between victory and defeat is often one or two big plays, John Elway made his legend by coming up big when it mattered most, and nobody was better than Peyton Manning at precisely threading a pass with no margin for error.

From a distance, the difference between good and great can look almost too small to measure. But it’s immense.

And Nix keeps coming up inches short in close games. 

“It stinks. It’s definitely not fun, not enjoyable,” he said after a loss to the Chargers dropped his record to 1-8 in games decided by seven points or less.

The Philadelphia Eagles beat Kansas City in the Super Bowl earlier this year by getting after Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and watching Jalen Hurts play the game of his life.

That’s the Broncos’ template for championship success.

The reasonable goal and achievable ceiling for Nix is Hurts, not Josh Allen, Joe Burrow or even Baker Mayfield.

In the history of Denver quarterbacks, the talent level of Nix falls somewhere between Brian Griese and Jake Plummer. 

Nix isn’t blessed with Griese’s brilliant mind, but demonstrates far more athleticism. He’s smarter with the football than Plummer, but lacks the gunslinger mentality that made Jake the Snake dangerous with his back to the wall.

After only 20 NFL starts, it’s neither particularly surprising nor alarming that Nix currently ranks 25th in the league, below Bryce Young but above Russell Wilson, when measured by ESPN’s QBR statistical analysis.

If Nix looks wobbly, it’s because Payton did the great disservice of putting him on a pedestal as a franchise quarterback far too early.

With chronically injured linebacker Dre Greenlaw a no-show on the field and a liability on the payroll, Denver can create havoc rushing the passer but has often looked weak against the run at the point of attack.

Nobody asked me, but Broncos Country should be more worried about the championship legitimacy of Denver’s defense rather than fretting about how good Nix can be.

As they now stand, tangled in a log jam among also-rans chasing the Chargers in the AFC West, the Broncos are a mediocre NFL team. Good enough to make the playoffs or break your heart on any given Sunday.

“I would say the job degree (of) difficulty factor, it was a hard day to play quarterback when your average third down is third-and-11,” said Payton, making excuses for Nix’s 14 completions for 153 yards against the Chargers. “If we’re not more efficient on first and second down, the best in our league are going to struggle with the numbers that we gave him (Nix) on third down.”

The last thing Nix needs is for Payton to be his apologist or hype man. 

What a young, struggling Broncos quarterback really needs is for Payton to be a far better playcaller and a smarter head coach worth anything near the outrageous money that franchise owner Greg Penner is paying him.