Why Sean Payton “loved” Bo Nix’s fiery demeanor on the sideline in the Denver Broncos’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Bo Nix didn’t hold back when addressing his head coach Sean Payton on the sideline midway through the Denver Broncos‘ dominant 34-18 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

Fiery. Animated. Passionate.

Those are all words that could have been used to describe the emotions, temperament and actions of the 24-year-old quarterback toward his 61-year-old head coach.

And despite Payton being the head coach and Nix just the quarterback, the head coach loved it.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Payton said on Monday morning, when asked if he liked Nix speaking up in the animated moment during the game that was caught on national television. “All good. All good.”

“It’s the heat of the moment, it’s the game. It’s competitive, he’s fiery,” the head coach added, playing down the significance of the moment. “We’re in the business of passion.”

And being in the business of passion, as Payton said, the Broncos are looking for that type of passion Nix displayed.

“We’re looking for passion, and we’re looking for people who have passion for the game—not other things,” the head coach said. “I think that it’s so important to him. Again I loved his response. We’re on to the next play, and it’s nothing.”

One more thing Payton will love about that exchange is how Nix responded. After taking a few minutes to cool down, the rookie quarterback played the best stretch of football he’s played in his short NFL career.

To finish off the game, after the sideline exchange, Nix went 5-for-5 for 54 yards and had a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown.

“He played well,” Payton said, evaluating Nix’s performance against the Raiders. “He used his feet, went through his progressions, threw the ball well, got it down the field, took the underneath throws. He handled the two-minute again. That’s happened a number of times now, where we’ve been able to get some points at the end of the half. He had good command of what we were doing, and I was pleased.”

On top of that, the Broncos’ scored a season-high 34 points, got their first division win, snapped their eight-game losing streak to the Raiders, extended their win streak to three games and started AFC West divisional play 1-0.

No wonder Sean Payton had no issue with Bo Nix showing passion on the sidelines.