The play probably just should have been a bad one.
The Broncos didn’t exactly have a fleet of explosive playmakers on the field in the first place for a first-and-goal snap Sunday from the Kansas City 3-yard line midway through the second quarter.
Rookie quarterback Bo Nix play-faked, but nobody came open.
That was, in part, because the only wide receiver on the field didn’t do what he was supposed to.
Tight end Adam Trautman worked himself free as Nix ran to his right, but Nix put the ball in a bad spot for him, giving Chiefs cornerback Nazeeh Johnson a chance to disrupt the throw.
Johnson did just that, batting the ball up into the air. Then he tipped it again as he and Trautman faded out of bounds. Cornerback Keith Taylor had a shot at the ball, too.
In that moment, an incompletion looked like the best-case scenario.
Instead, it stayed in the air just long enough for Broncos rookie receiver Devaughn Vele to snatch it.
Bo Nix was trying to go to Adam Trautman…
The ball gets tipped THREE times…
Then Devaughn Vele comes up with the @Broncos TD!
: #KCvsDEN on CBS/Paramount+
: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/Df7tchDooL
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025
Touchdown. 21-0 Broncos. Week 18 rout over the mostly resting-their-starters Chiefs fully on.
It was a circus catch. It came in a game where one team had much more to play for than the other. It didn’t probably have much of an impact on the outcome overall — Denver was already up two scores and firmly in control.
But aside from drawing a great reaction from CBS broadcasters Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, the play had meaning.
At least it did to Nix, who playfully jabbed Vele before getting to his rationale.
“I think it just goes to show you that, even though Vele ran the wrong route, he didn’t give up on the play and showed great effort,” Nix said. “In my opinion, it’s the effort that matters and it’s the effort that counts.
“They say all the time for young guys, especially, it doesn’t matter if you mess up — just do it with 100% of your effort. That’s what Vele was doing. It actually was perfect. I’m glad he did exactly what he did and he got a touchdown.”
Vele had one-on-one coverage and a lot of room to operate to the outside. He instead ran a little sit route around the goal line and found himself in traffic. He faded toward the middle of the field and pounced when the ball was batted up in the air.
It all looks good in the box score, though that wasn’t the prettiest play the duo combined for Sunday. That was when Vele gave a hesitation move on a third-and-11, ran up the seam and Nix pinned a 32-yard completion on him. Overall, Vele played in 13 games as a rookie — he was inactive Weeks 2-5, first for a fractured rib and then as a healthy scratch — and caught 41 passes for 475 yards and a trio of touchdowns.
He and second-year man Marvin Mims Jr. have become Nix’s favorite pair of targets behind veteran Courtland Sutton.
In fact, as the season’s gone along, the Broncos are relying more and more on young skill position players.
In Denver’s past three games — losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati and then the win over Kansas City — seven of the team’s 10 offensive touchdowns have been scored by first- or second-year players. On the season, it’s seven of Denver’s 12 rushing touchdowns and 17 of 30 passing touchdowns for a total of 57%.
They look like this:
Mims: Six receiving
Nix: Four rushing, one receiving
Vele: Three receiving
Tight end Nate Adkins: Three receiving
Running back Jaleel McLaughlin: Two receiving, one rushing
Running back Audric Estime: Two rushing
Receiver Troy Franklin: Two receiving
Payton knew Denver would have to rely on young players this season and this stretch run has shown their ability to find the end zone with regularity.
“(We had to) kind of bow up here a little bit and take on this challenge and then find these guys that are like-minded and that are competitive,” he said Monday. “I used that term, that ‘young and hungry can be dangerous,’ and it’s true. There’s a little naivete to not knowing even.
“It’s inspiring as a coach to work with players like that.”
One small thing I liked: Oh, no, not another Bo Nix/Russell Wilson comparison. Just one more, we promise. And this really is a coincidence that it involves Wilson, the former Broncos quarterback.
The now-Pittsburgh signal-caller made a critical mistake late in the Steelers’ Week 18 loss to Cincinnati when he took off running late in the game but didn’t get out of bounds and instead lowered his shoulder as the clock ran. The ball got snapped with 47 seconds. If Wilson had got out of bounds, there might have been 40-ish left around the Steelers’ 45 and needing a field goal to win. Pittsburgh kicker Chris Boswell is having a terrific year and is an excellent long-range kicker. Wilson had them within 20 yards of Boswell’s range but then couldn’t get the clock stopped.
Instead, it ran to 24 seconds before Pittsburgh snapped the ball again and Wilson took a 5-yard sack, leading to the team’s final timeout. Pittsburgh did not score and now trundles into the postseason on a four-game skid.
A much different game situation, but juxtapose a play Nix made the next day, late in the second quarter against Kansas City. With 1:04 remaining in the first half and one timeout in his pocket, Nix took off and ran for 29 yards. When he felt he was about to be tackled, Nix tried to lateral it to Javonte Williams, who scooted another 21. The lateral was eventually ruled a forward pass and a penalty, but what stood out about the play was Nix’s postgame explanation.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to get out of bounds in the two-minute,” he said, noting that he should have either made sure the ball traveled backward or looped around Williams as a potential blocker to get to the sideline.
Denver settled for a field goal. So the execution wasn’t perfect, but heads up from Nix to have the clock and game situation in his mind.
One small thing I didn’t like: There wasn’t much from the Broncos’ perspective. Let’s hope next time these teams meet late in the season, it counts for both sides. That would be a lot of fun. Late in the season or … later in January? A trip to Arrowhead would be on the other side of an upset win by the Broncos on Sunday. Huh.
One trend to watch: Just kidding about the end of the Nix/Wilson comparisons. Nix, according to Next Gen Stats, has thrown on the run 21.9% of the time this year, second-most in the NFL to only — you guessed it — Russell Wilson (24.9%).
Nix is having great success, too. He’s thrown for 904 yards and eight TDs while moving at least 8 miles per hour, per NGS tracking data. That’s the fourth-most yards by a quarterback in any season since 2016. The top three all belong to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
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