Denver writer believes polarizing ex-Auburn football star can be NFL's Nikola Jokic

Denver Sports' Jake Shapiro is confident that Sean Payton knows enough about the quarterback position that there's a chance he'll be right about drafting former Oregon and Auburn football star Bo Nix with the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

And if Payton is right about Nix, it'd be a similar narrative to another Denver-area star following The Ringer's Steve Ruiz ranking Nix at No. 32, aka dead last, in his NFL quarterback rankings: former second-round NBA draft pick and three-time regular season MVP Nikola Jokic.

"If Nix does become as great as Payton thinks he can be, we’ll all be pointing back and laughing that like Nikola Jokic—Nix has apparently begun his career at the bottom," Shapiro wrote.

Nix's easy time at Oregon is being held against him, as is his career on the Plains. That his worst year was during the 2020 COVID-19 season is never brought up, though, nor is his successful 2021 campaign before a season-ending injury against Mississippi State.

Ranking him below the man he replaced, Russell Wilson, who torpedoed the Broncos locker room to the point where Payton couldn't save it, is malpractice on Ruiz's part.

But hey, if he can reach the end of the tunnel and come out the other side like the 2023 NBA Finals MVP, the Mile High City will be okay with such low hopes from the talking heads.

Jarrett Stidham is to Bo Nix as Jusuf Nurkic was to Nikola Jokic

If we're comparing Nix to Jokic, then that'd make Jarrett Stidham the equivalent of Jusuft Nurkic. Stidham only briefly started ahead of Nix in the preseason, though. Nurkic spent two and a half years ahead of or competing the Jokic on the Nuggets.

Comparisons aside, Nix and Jokic now hold the hopes of Coloradoans in their hands. All things considered, the Pinson, Alabama native and Serbian superstar make for strange bedfellows in Denver.