Action Network brought in Heisman Trophy-winner Johnny Manziel and former NFL quarterback Kurt Benkert to break down the 2024 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks. So far, five have been analyzed.
Finally, here are Manziel and Benkert's breakdowns on Heisman finalist Bo Nix.
Johnny Manziel
I think Bo Nix is easily one of the biggest sleepers on the quarterback side of this draft. I have him listed probably as the fifth or sixth QB prospect in this year's class. Being fifth or sixth in this draft class is not a bad thing, not a slight or negative about their ability. Williams, Daniels, Maye, McCarthy, Nix, Penix — these guys are real cats. Somebody on this list is gonna have to get left toward the bottom.
There's still so much room for him to go get in a situation and this guy could potentially even beat somebody out in a training camp this fall to be a starter. He has that kind of ability. It is there. It's about getting with the right team that can pull it out of him.
As a football player, as a competitor and as a quarterback, you see all of the intangibles that you need to be a starting NFL quarterback. The important thing will be about how he develops further.
The biggest thing that I like about Nix more than anything is that he played 61 games in college. That's a lot of football that didn't come with durability issues, but it did come with improvement.
A passer rating of 188.3 last season is off the charts. Take out his first three years at Auburn, and his passer rating for his two years at Oregon is gonna average somewhere around 175, which is just off-the-charts great. The numbers are there, the history is there. Nix played at two different conferences in two different schools and was successful for the most part at both.
I don't see a lot to dislike about this guy as far as what NFL GMs and what coaches are saying.
Kurt Benkert
I'm excited to see where he ends up. I would say he's the prospect most that I'm excited about besides Jayden Daniels.
You look at his numbers, he had a 77% completion percentage. His completion percentage got better every single year in college, going from 57% in year one to 77%. He had 9.6 yards per attempt with Oregon last season, too.
I went and watched his film and watched all three of his interceptions last season. Only one of them was actually thrown to a defender, the other two were tip passes. One of them hit his player's chest and popped up the other one through a player's hands. So, this guy's accurate. He knows how to see coverage and can distribute the ball. I hope that he gets into an offense where he can play point guard.
And that's what he is. Nix is a really accurate point guard playing quarterback who, by the way, is undervalued as an athlete. I've seen some of the plays that he's made with his feet. He can really run and make people miss. He's got some wiggle to him. So, a lot of the time, some of those big plays that you'd see in the run game out of him as a quarterback didn't even get to happen because he was distributing the rock on time.
I look at some of these pieces of what I'm seeing in this national narrative around him and, again, he could go and play. I look at a team like Miami, the Dolphins. If you had Bo Nix at quarterback, say he falls to the second round and you take him to get some security behind Tua Tagovailoa, who you thought might have actually retired last year because of the concussions. Nix can be trusted to operate the offense, distribute the rock, put it downfield, short, intermediate. I think that a team like Miami would be ideal for him.
Ultimately, I think he's gonna go to a team that needs a quarterback, but I could also see him going to a guy like Sean Peyton who likes to stress the ball vertical down taking a chance on him.
Nix would be an exciting pickup for any team. He's got good character, people talk highly of him. He's 6-foot-2, 214 pounds. He's not built like Maye, but he plays really well and is ready.
