Bo Nix scouting report: Exploring the Oregon quarterback's strengths and weaknesses

Bo Nix came in as a top-100 recruited freshman with Auburn and won his first career game in a huge showdown versus Oregon with a game-winning TD pass to Seth Williams. Over 8,000 combined passing and rushing yards (800 on the ground) and 57 touchdowns later (versus 16 interceptions), he ended up transferring to the Ducks.

He had a tremendous debut season for Oregon, with career-highs across the board – 71.9 completion percentage, 3,593 passing yards, 29 passing TDs (versus seven INTs), plus rushing yards and 14 scores on the ground. He “only” finished third in the Heisman voting, but the Pac-12 recognized him as their Offensive Player of the Year over Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.

Bo Nix scouting report

Physical make-up & arm talent:

• Was far from a pin-point passer when he came in, but has really improved with his consistency in accuracy and has become a much more capable pocket passer
• While the Oregon offense feasted on spacing and leverage advantages underneath, Nix has some highly impressive layered throws on tape, to beat defenders below and just behind the target
• Correctly reads and places the ball beautifully away from defenders on slot fade routes
• Has no issues driving the ball to the sideline whilst rolling to either side, getting his shoulders squared up when going left, to hit even deep outs and comebacks
• Delivers some real zingers into the honey-hole against soft cover-two looks
• Can put plenty of mustard on the ball whilst on the move, being able to fire the ball into his guys on the sideline, even with a defender on their back-hip or he may be releasing off the wrong foot
• Finished just 0.1% behind the top mark for adjusted completion percentage among all QBs with 100+ dropbacks in 2022 (82.3%) and then set the record for raw completion percentage for a season this past year (77.4%)

Processing & decision-making:

• His ability to play on time and target in a more traditional dropback offense his first year at Oregon was stunning for me, in particular with the quick decision-making necessary for their spread approach
• You give him off-coverage on the outside and he will just hammer away with his hitches and speed-outs all day long
• Regularly beats defenders with the throw, as they’re driving on the route and the ball is placed away from those guys, also allowing them to spin/turn away for yards after the catch
• The way he adds in that extra hitch to give his receivers to break open as they work across the field or generally towards grass was big in 2022 – You saw great patience on several occasions on muddy looks when they ran mesh concepts and he needed to let those get sorted out, at times with receivers running into each other
• Tremendous with maintaining a vertical passing stature throughout, with his front-shoulder tilted up a little bit, before flipping it out to his back, as the defense is now drawn way back and it leads to some massive gains
• Showcases impressive awareness for guys dropping out of overloaded looks and then the patience to slide away from pressure and allow his receivers to clear those guys, understanding they’ll simply get to a spot
• Nix has become so much more mature with just throwing the ball out of bounds as he’s approaching the sideline or dirting it to the feet of his back, indicated by an FBS-low 1.0% turnover-worthy play rate in 2023
• Massively improved his play under pressure in year one with the Ducks, with the same PFF grade in those situations (70.8) as Alabama’s Bryce Young, and then improved that to an insane mark of 91.2 last season – only Jayden Daniels and he himself put up a better overall passing grade than that

Playmaking in & out of the pocket:

• Has that mindset of extending plays and creating explosives, with the slippery ability to set up those opportunities
• Can direct back towards the line of scrimmage after getting sideways and hitting receivers streaking vertically
• When he does throw balls off platform and even across his body at times, he typically does so pulling his targets back down and away from coverage
• Understands how to manipulate rush angles to set up lanes for himself to slice through, often pulling them too far up the field and then taking off
• Was an elite sack-avoider at Oregon, registering the eighth-lowest pressure-to-sack conversion rate among all FBS QBs with 100+ dropbacks each of the past two seasons (6.5 and 7.6% respectively)
• Features the mobility to get away from the rush the rip off big chunks if you play man or don’t have a spy on him – You better be disciplined in your rush lanes
• Pulls his feet out of the grasp of would-be tacklers from the side regularly, averaging 9.6 yards per scramble and producing first downs on 67 of his 100 total carries over the past two years combined
• Has the burst to get out to the corner if edge defenders take a couple of shuffle steps inside against read option plays with a tight-end leading after coming across the formation and stuff like that – definitely helps out his backs with the way he carries out play-fakes and pulls edge defenders with him due to the potential of him getting around the edge on zone read and similar concepts
• Recognizes where the bubble is for the defensive line and how he can squeeze through to convert in short-yardage on sneak plays

Weaknesses:

• You see him pat the ball and make himself vulnerable for getting stripped a lot, if the primary read isn’t there – which it was with great frequency
• Just blindly trusts play designs at times and even though they’re clearly not there, just pulling the trigger anyway – Georgia’s defenses have eaten Nix alive, understanding where those offenses wanted to attack them and having people in those areas
• Gained more yards on screens (749) than any other QB in the FBS and you rarely see him throw those intermediate routes to either sideline, with a bottom-ten mark in percentage of air yards (38.8%)
• Not somebody who will re-set his base working through progressions without moving off the spot, becoming a first-read-and-create type of QB
• You’d still like to see Nix calm his feet and use intricate, subtle movement around the pocket more efficiently

While you don’t really see this type of profile project well to the pro level, considering Bo set the NCAA record for quarterbacks with 60 collegiate starts, the continued growth he’s showcased has turned around the opinions of a lot of analysts. I never thought we’d see him operate this cleanly and pick apart defenses as a pre-snap decision-maker.

I believe for a team that wants him to be that triggerman rather than condensing formations, he can be a quality starter for a long time worthy of going in the mid-to-late-first round.

Grade: Late first round