Former Auburn QB ‘a very real option’ for NFC North playoff team in 2024

Former Auburn football quarterback Bo Nix is a “very real option” for a 2022/23 NFC North playoff team, the Minnesota Vikings — this, at least, according to Vikings Territory’s Dustin Baker, who believes the Pinson native could be a replacement for Kirk Cousins, a free agent in 2024.

“Nix is a very real option for the Vikings next April. Fans should remember the name,” Baker wrote in the latest Purple Rumor Mill column.

Baker was responding to PFF’s Dalton Wasserman, who tabbed Nix as a quarterback the Vikings should be monitoring for the upcoming 2023 college football season, and eventually, the 2024 NFL draft.

“The Vikings most likely won’t be bad enough to enter the Caleb Williams sweepstakes, so someone like Oregon’s Bo Nix could be an option later in the first round,” Wasserman wrote. “Nix is a solid rhythm passer who gets rid of the ball quickly and does some of his best work on the move. He offers more mobility than Cousins to run Kevin O’Connell’s outside zone/boot system. Nix is considered a Heisman dark horse and could vault himself into the first round with another big year at Oregon.”

Auburn football quarterback Payton Thorne needs a big 2023 season to garner NFL consideration

As for who will be under center for the Auburn football program in 2023, Payton Thorne, the incoming Michigan State transfer will need to have a big 2023 to garner NFL draft consideration in 2024. Thorne currently ranks as the No. 62 prospect at his position and the No. 543 overall prospect according to NFLDraftBuzz.com.

Hugh Freeze did just send Malik Willis to the NFL, and that was from Group of Five school Liberty, but Thorne has a much different skill set. If the signal-caller could quickly establish chemistry with the revamped receiving corps on the Plains, perhaps there could be the first AU passing product to be drafted to the NFL since Jarrett Stidham in 2019.