Woody Paige: No question, Nix should be QB1 from the jump

The Broncos must stop playing games before beginning to play games.

The franchise has started 25 different quarterbacks in the opening games of 64 seasons.

Bronco Bo will become the 57th quarterback (and one running back) to start an opener in team history.

His inauguration has to be Sunday afternoon, Sept. 8.

All else aside, Bo Nix is the only Broncos quarterback of the three who has played – and exceled – in Seattle. Last November 14th Nix finished with a career-best 33 completions in 44 passes for 337 yards and two touchdowns. His Oregon Ducks were leading the Washington Huskies 33-29 before losing by three with 1:38 left. That game wasn’t at the Seahawks’ vociferous Lumen Field, but played out before an equally clamorous crowd of 70,000 at nearby Husky Stadium.

Jarrett Stidham didn’t participate in trips with the Patriots and the Raiders to the Great Northwest, and Zach Wilson was inactive for the Jets game there.

Nix can fix the Broncos. Stidham and Wilson can’t.

Why wait?

Sean Payton already knows who he wants to start. It’s mind over matter. His mind is saying “Nix,’’, and the other two QBs don’t matter. The coach split the plays three ways in the off-season minicamps, but declined to reveal his plan for the full training camp, which starts in earnest in Dove Valley this week.

The Broncos’ offensive think tank of Payton, Joe Lombardi and Pete Carmichael (in full meddle jacket reunion of their 16, 12 and 18 seasons with the Saints) should concentrate on Nix getting at least 60 percent of the repetitions, with the other two sharing the remaining 40 percent during daily workouts. Bo should start the first two exhibitions with the starters on offense for a quarter or two, with Stidham and Wilson battling for backup in the final, and sit out the Cardinals game.

BoNix (which always should be one word) has found a house here. Now he must feel at home with the Broncos.

Bo and his wife Izzy Smoke Nix recently spent considerably less than Russell and Ciara Harris Wilson ($25 million to $4 mil) for their manor just off the Castle Pines Country Club golf course. They saved 200K in the purchase price while the Wilsons lost $3.5 in their Cherry Hills mansion firesale. The Nix house has 13,000 fewer square feet, but one more bedroom (5), yet only seven bathrooms to the Wilson’s 12. Nix does not have an entourage, but his movie theater is sweeter, and the mountain views are more scenic. Bo’s daily drive to work is 20 minutes (depending on I-25 traffic).

The concern among media maggots is that Nix will struggle as a rookie. Well, so did former Broncos QBs John Elway and Peyton Manning. Elway was 4-6 with 14 interceptions as a starter from the gate, and Manning won only three games and set the league’s first-year record of 28 picks. But both were 13-3 in their second seasons and reached the playoffs. They retired with a combined eight Super Bowl appearances and four NFL championships.

BoNix is Payton’s Chosen 1 (at 12), so he won’t sit the 24-year-old quarterback anymore than he did in 2006 with Drew Brees, who was recovering from a torn labrum in his throwing (right) shoulder (suffered in the last game against the Broncos on a dirty defensive play).

Another worry is that BoNix will not be able to manage Payton’s complicated schemes and “Dr. Zhivago’’ 559-page-like playbook. After his sophomore year at Auburn Nix earned his magna cum laude degree in communications (the same major as Manning at Tennessee) and began his masters’ program after transferring to Oregon. He was selected the major college Scholar Athlete of 2023.

He’s not some Paxton Lynch type playing X-Box instead of reading Boris Pasternak and defenses.

BoNix gets it. When Payton calls for “Gun empty 25 Quizno 52 nudge Ole’ HB choice kill 352 y shock x Lucy,” Bo will understand everything except that Quiznos was a sandwich shop founded in Denver.

Russell Wilson never got it. That failure is why the staff was forced to give him a reminder wristband and realize he never would change a play at the line. Payton didn’t trust his quarterback, which resulted in the yelling on the sidelines and an irreparable relationship.

Both Wilsons and Stidham are problems. BoNix should be nicknamed “The Solution.”

Start him from the very start.