Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Terrell Davis is Denver Broncos royalty, and he joined Keyshawn Johnson on the latest edition of “All Facts No Brakes” to discuss his former team ahead of Week 5.
Denver is rolling with rookie quarterback Bo Nix this season after selecting him with the twelfth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft out of Oregon. After an 0-2 start, Nix and the Broncos have won two consecutive games to get to .500. Nix has totaled 660 passing yards, one passing touchdown, four interceptions and a 62.5 passer rating — while completing 60.1% of his passes — during that span. The 24-year-old signal-caller has also rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
“When you watch him (Nix), you look at him and say, ‘OK, he’s a top-12 pick,’ and you just want to see moments,” Davis said. “That’s what I’m looking for. I want to see moments and throws in a game where [I’m like], ‘OK, I think he has it in him.’ That’s what I’ve been looking for the first couple weeks.
“He hasn’t played terrible, but he hasn’t played great the last couple [of] weeks, either. I know he’s a rookie, so I give him that kind of grace to say, ‘Alright, … let’s just play this thing out and not just rush to judgment and see where he’s going to be.’ [The Broncos have] got to score more points is the bottom line, though.”
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On the other hand, the Broncos went a combined 11-19 with Nix’s predecessor, nine-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson, under center — moving on from the 35-year-old veteran one season into a five-year, $242.6 million deal. To acquire Wilson and a fourth-rounder from the Seattle Seahawks in 2022, Denver gave up a pair of first- and second-round draft picks, a fifth-rounder, tight end Noah Fant, defensive end Shelby Harris and quarterback Drew Lock.
“He came in and [Denver] was expecting the Russell that was in Seattle, and for whatever reason … it just never materialized,” Davis said. “That was my biggest disappointment — that when he got to Denver, we didn’t see the Russell that we saw in Seattle and [the Broncos] never had the chance to benefit from that. He was there for two years, and it just seemed that at some point [the Broncos] were never going to get that, and I think that’s why Sean Payton made that move was because [they] were never going to get that quarterback that we all had loved in Seattle.
“I like Russell. I know him personally, so I feel bad for him and I just feel bad that he was never able to come to Denver and to elevate the program like so many quarterbacks have done. Peyton [Manning] came in and did that.”
Manning, who signed with the Broncos in 2012, won 2013 NFL MVP honors en route to helping the franchise win four consecutive AFC West titles and a Super Bowl to close out the 2015 season.
As for Wilson, the 35-year-old signed a one-year deal with Pittsburgh in March, but a calf injury knocked him out of the starting position before Week 1, and the Steelers (3-1) are expected to stick with Justin Fields at quarterback.
A three-time All-Pro, Davis was part of two Super Bowl championship teams with the Broncos. He rushed for 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns in his rookie season (1995), which was followed by posting 1,500-plus rushing yards and 13-plus rushing touchdowns in each of the next three seasons and leading the sport in rushing touchdowns twice.
Davis was also the Super Bowl XXXII MVP and is a two-time Offensive Player of the Year.
In his fourth season (1998), Davis ran for an NFL-high 2,008 yards and 21 touchdowns and won NFL MVP honors. Davis is one of eight players to register 2,000-plus rushing yards in a single season — and he believes he’ll be among the last to accomplish that feat.
“No, there [are] too many factors working against that now,” Davis said when asked whether he believes the NFL will see another 2,000-yard rusher in his lifetime. “No coaches are coming in [and] wanting to run the ball. Running backs are being platooned in and out. … You rarely see a coach get elevated because he’s got a top running game, and it’s too expensive with the time it takes to run the ball and be proficient.”
“Takes too much time, too many days of hitting with pads,” Davis added. “It’s too much to invest in and not really seeing the benefits of that as quickly as you can with throwing the football. It’s just more efficient. You can practice throwing the ball without even having organized practices.”
Davis, a sixth-round draft pick by Denver out of Georgiain 1995, immediately stood out in the preseason that year with an emphatic tackle on a kickoff return in a game against the San Francisco 49ers, which was played in Tokyo.
Davis described the impact of that play on his rookie season.
“This was the first play of my NFL career, but I knew I had to go make this play,” Davis shared. “I said, ‘If I don’t go down and make this tackle, they won’t even know me. I would just be a guy on this team. They won’t even know my name.’
“So I had to go make that tackle to make the coaches notice me on that field, and that was my way to becoming a running back — going to make a tackle.”
Davis’ career was abruptly sidetracked by a series of knee injuries, which limited him to just 17 games from 1999-2001 and ultimately ended his career. That said, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017, and he is still the Broncos all-time leading rusher and holds the franchise record for most postseason single-season touchdowns (eight).
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