The Oregon Ducks have sent over a few star athletes to the NFL. Unfortunately, they’ve also seen a few of their top quarterbacks bypass stardom shortly after reaching the league. Joey Harrington, Marcus Mariota, and Justin Herbert are three great examples since 2000. Herbert is, by far, the biggest success story to come out of Oregon at this time. Many former QBs from the Ducks had a lot of promise and were given a great shot, but at this time, Herbert is easily the best example of what can happen.
So, what’s the smartest prediction for Nix?
His time in Auburn is held up as a good reason why he’s considered to be a strong draft pick. From 2019 to 2021, his record at Auburn spoke for itself as he was named the starter for the game against Oregon, which set the pace. Having gone from a QB rating of 125 to 130 during his time in Auburn, it wasn’t tough to see why Nix excited so many people.
Many analysts would agree, however, there was a time when his star failed to shine quite as brightly. His number of completed passes did take a dip from 217 to 197 in 2021. That’s not a dramatic drop, but with so many talented individuals vying for attention, it’s bound to draw the wrong kind of attention.
Since transferring to Oregon, his performance has improved immensely, as 2022 was a great year for Nix despite a couple of heartbreaking losses to UW and OSU. Looking at his stats for 2022, it’s easy to see why we’re talking about his chance to get drafted in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. There are a lot of teams that might have their eyes on him at this time, but predicting where he’s going to go is difficult at this time. After the 2023-24 season, it’s easy to predict where Nix will land in the league.
Since it’s only natural to compare the career quarterback to another, Nix is currently standing out as one of the best UO quarterbacks in the long history of the Ducks. He’s not flawless, but he’s still impressive since the performance he put up through his first six games, a 70.6% completion rate, versus Joey Harrington’s 60.1% back in his day, is something to think about. Compared to others outside of the Ducks, Nix’s current record, several quarterbacks are performing just as well, if not better.
Names such as Jordan Travis of Florida State, Drake Maye-North of the Carolina Tarheels, Michael Penix Jr. of the UW Huskies, and Caleb Williams of the USC Trojans are still placed above Nix. This is interesting to think about since the Ducks have to confront UW and USC, and they’ll be looking for revenge against the Huskies after last season. Who knows, maybe Nix will rise in the rankings during the 2023 season.
His current stats are still impressive to look at since in 2022, he threw for over 3,500 yards, had 29 touchdowns, and boasted an outstanding QB rating of 85.1; it’s expected that he would find his way onto the list of top ten QBs in the country today.
That’s interesting to think about, especially since Oregon has seen its stars spread far and wide throughout the NFL. The real question, though, is whether Nix will excel in the NFL as he has in Oregon. The understanding is that unless he’s tagged as a starter upon reaching the NFL, he will initially be used as a backup. Plenty of teams in the league could make good use of Nix, but it’s also easy to predict that he will warm the bench for a few games, if not longer.
Thankfully, this isn’t uncommon for rookies, but there’s always the chance that Nix will give the scouts even more to talk about this season. If his numbers continue to climb as they have in the past couple of years, it’s easy to guess that there will be a few teams vying for the chance to add him to their squad. His ability to extend the play is impressive, and even though he was regressing in Auburn, he’s grown in leaps and bounds at UO.
The fact that he appears to have complete faith in his throws and can consistently hit back-shoulder throws should place him reasonably high in the running when it comes to the draft. Not only that, but he works well against the blitz and displays the kind of mental acuity on and off the field, which is excellent since it indicates that Bo is a thinking quarterback and doesn’t simply react without any foresight. In short, Bo isn’t the complete package, but he has a lot of tools to work with and has shown that he’s capable of learning and adapting, which makes him one of the greatest prospects heading into the 2024 Draft.
Oregon has a long history of sending its talented young stars to the NFL. Bo Nix is set to be the next big thing to come out of Eugene, assuming that the coming season goes well.
