AFC Notes: Bo Nix, Sean Payton, Antonio Pierce, Broncos, Raiders

Broncos

Broncos QB Bo Nix has been a revelation this season as a rookie starter, completing 67 percent of his passes for 1,891 yards, 14 touchdowns, and two interceptions. Sean Payton thinks repetition has been important for Nix and he’s grown more comfortable with what they are asking him to do. 

“I think repetition is where it begins,” Payton said, via PFT. “The more and more you rep a certain play or a certain scheme, the more and more you get comfortable with it. You kind of know where all the answers are relative to — Bo said something that was real sharp yesterday. We send in a play for a certain defense, and you get another defense. The better plays have an answer versus more of the defenses. As he gets comfortable with where those answers are, then you can expand on it. The same thing the other way around. In other words, there’s certain plays we’re going to have up each week that we’re going to window dress.”

Payton added it’s been a “gradual process” for finding what Nix is comfortable with. 

“I just think it’s a gradual [process]. I can’t look at one game and say, ‘That was the game.’ It’s a gradual process of confidence both in what he’s comfortable with and then confidence in what the others around him can do with it. It’s kind of something that is ongoing. Honestly, I don’t think that ever really — there’s no conclusion to it. You’re always tinkering. You’re always looking for new ways to get a third-down conversion, but I’ve been real impressed with the speed at which he’s been able to adapt to this league.”

Payton said Nix has given them confidence they can compete in each game, similar to what he had with the Saints in Drew Brees. 

“I think it’s pretty powerful and he’s why — just having experienced it for a long stretch with another player in [Drew] Brees — you always believe you’re in each game,” Payton said. “You always believe — even if you fall behind — you’re in each game. The opposite can be very difficult. I think that player who’s touching the ball on every offensive play, it definitely can lead to a direction — both mentally as well as on the field — lead to a direction [of] how a team thinks.”

Broncos

Broncos OLB Nik Bonitto entered Week 11 with seven sacks and believes that he and fellow pass rusher OLB Jonathon Cooper are lucky to be having good seasons, with the things they have executed in practice showing on Sundays.

“Knowing how we practice and then going out there in the games, seeing all the repetitions, all the work we do in practice pay off, it’s definitely really good to see that,’’ Bonitto said, via Mike Klis of 9news.com. “And then also thanks to the coaches and the other guys I’m with that help put me in that position.”

Raiders

Raiders RB Ameer Abdullah said he thought the team’s timing looked better under new OC Scott Turner.

“I think our timing in the passing game was a lot better,” Abdullah said, via The Athletic. “I think we got the ball out a lot quicker, allowed our playmakers to make moves and run after the play. That’s when we’re at our best, letting (Bowers), (Jakobi Meyers), (Tre Tucker) and (Alexander Mattison) just play.”

Raiders HC Antonio Pierce said that the team looked good offensively, but there were still issues to clean up in the running game.

“I thought the communication was clean,” Pierce said. “Still need to get the running game going. But I thought our front, there weren’t a lot of miscues up there. We just have to keep executing and strain a little bit more. … There were opportunities there for shots (downfield), but we didn’t get them down there again.”

Raiders QB Gardner Minshew added that the team was more efficient offensively.

“It definitely felt better, man,” Minshew said. “We didn’t have a lot of possessions, you know? Felt like we were efficient with the ones we did get.”

• Pierce named Minshew the starter for Week 12 as QB Aidan O’Connell cannot come off IR until next week at the earliest. (Paul Gutierrez)