Bo Nix will spend Sunday trying to beat Christian McCaffrey. But the Denver Broncos quarterback has nothing but praise for McCaffrey’s family.
Nix got to know the family through Luke McCaffrey, Christian’s younger brother. The two were teammates for a week at the 2024 Senior Bowl, a few months before Denver took Nix at No. 12 overall and Washington took McCaffrey 88 picks later, in the third round. Nix still remembers what he saw.
“You think like he could be just a hot shot and just think everybody knows who you are, but he just put his head down,” Nix said on Wednesday. “He worked.”
What stuck with Nix was how much Luke played. At the Senior Bowl, plenty of players with high draft grades cut back their reps or sit out entirely. Nix said McCaffrey didn’t.
“I think if I remember correctly, he probably played majority of the Senior Bowl, which is rare, because a lot of guys just pull themselves out,” Nix said. “But he played the whole entire time, and … I don’t remember him complaining about it.”
Nix said Luke seemed to be “just loving it and going out there and doing what’s best for the team on a, you know, a week-old team.”
“So that was impressive to me,” he said, “and that sort of, in my opinion, represented him and his family really well.”
Since arriving in Denver, Nix has also met the parents, Broncos great Ed McCaffrey and his wife, Lisa. He said it’s easy to see where the sons get it.
“Obviously, you can tell why the guys, the sons are the way they are,” Nix said. “I think they had great parents and they were raised right.”
That kind of praise lands differently in Denver. Ed was a sure-handed receiver on the Broncos teams that won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. His four sons grew up in the Denver area, and Christian became a star at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, where his father later coached, before going on to Stanford and the NFL.
“I have great respect for the McCaffreys, and obviously they’re really important to this town,” Nix said.
On Sunday, that respect gets set aside for a while. The Broncos (2-1) visit the unbeaten San Francisco 49ers (3-0) at Levi’s Stadium at 2:25 p.m. MDT on CBS. Denver is coming off a 30-26 comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Stopping McCaffrey is expected to be Denver’s biggest job on defense. San Francisco’s offense is most dangerous when he’s involved as both a runner and a receiver.
The game has a second family twist, too. Before he won two titles in Denver, Ed won a Super Bowl ring with the 49ers.
Nix is looking forward to it.
“It’ll be exciting to play against Christian this weekend,” he said.
