DENVER — The moment the Broncos made the pick, Mike Martz sent a text.

“I told Sean Payton I thought it was the best selection in the draft at quarterback,” the former St. Louis Rams coach and offensive coordinator told The Denver Post. “With Sean’s great understanding of the passing game, Bo Nix went to the perfect spot.”

Two years later, Nix boasts 24 wins, and will be watching from his couch this weekend after the Broncos secured the AFC’s No. 1 seed and a bye. Still, no Denver quarterback has been more heavily scrutinized since Peyton Manning.

Nix led the NFL in passing attempts and game-winning drives. Yet every Sunday feels like a race to the keyboard or microphone to criticize the mole on Cindy Crawford’s face (guilty as charged).

Win the Super Bowl with the AFC field wide open, or this season is a failure.

Do you Bo-lieve that? I don’t.

If you were watching the Broncos the past two games, you’d be fooling yourself to place that much faith in this team to go undefeated in the postseason.

He is being held to the same standard as the likes of Derek Jeter. Anything less than a downtown parade is a waste? Please. That is easy to say when you play for the Yankees, who use championship banners as coasters.

These days, no one affords anyone patience. But Nix deserves context.

The Broncos are back in the playoffs for a second straight season, one game closer to Super Bowl LX, and a legitimate contender because Nix has played with a slow heartbeat in the fourth quarter.

But how about we sip the orange Kool-Aid instead of chugging it, and consider the history Nix is chasing.

Not only has a rookie quarterback never won a Super Bowl, but a second-year starter has only pulled it off four times: Kurt Warner (1999), Tom Brady (2011), Ben Roethlisberger (2005) and Russell Wilson (2013).

That is a success rate of 6.7 % in 59 attempts.

This is not meant to provide Nix with an excuse, but an appropriate frame of reference. Those aforementioned players are either in the Hall of Fame (Warner) or will be (yes, even Wilson has a strong case).

Nix has been good. Manning told me he would be last summer, stressing “he is made of the right stuff.” But nobody is rushing to get his measurements for a gold jacket.

Nix is solid, inspiring confidence in teammates, who have watched him play his best when it matters most. Still, let’s be real about the current ask: win a Super Bowl in his second season?

Here’s the thing about Warner, Brady, Roethlisberger and Wilson: they did not have to put on a cape. They had sidekicks worthy of Marvel Comics. All four of them were paired with 1,000-yard rushers in Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, Antowain Smith, Willie Parker and Marshawn Lynch.

These guys had nicknames like “Superman,” “Fast Willie” and “Beast Mode.” Roethlisberger had Canton-bound Jerome “The Bus” Bettis as a short-yardage back for goodness sake.

Nix has R.J. Harvey — RJ for short — and Jaleel McLaughlin who doesn’t have a nickname but is known for the team misspelling his name on the back of his jersey in the preseason.

This is where Nix misses “El Toro,” aka J.K. Dobbins. He was on pace to eclipse 1,000 yards — he finished with 772 through 10 games, still a team best — before injuring his foot.

Want to be fair to Nix: Ask more of him in the Super Bowl if Dobbins returns.

Too lenient a standard?

You do realize that only eight second-year quarterbacks have even reached the Super Bowl, and Dan Marino, Colin Kaepernick, Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy all failed. And every one of them had a 1,000-yard rusher, save for Marino, who passed for a record 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns.

This is why it is important to widen the lens on the Broncos season. It has been special; you don’t win 14 games without creating goosebumps. But these Broncos are not like those of 1997, 1998 and 2015.

They are more flawed, a year ahead of schedule. They don’t have a championship offense on paper, and the resumes of Manning and John Elway dwarf Nix’s credentials.

Which is why it is fascinating how bad games cling to Nix like Bounce sheets, especially in relation to the other quarterbacks in the field.

Josh Allen and C.J. Stroud have never won a postseason road game or reached the big game. Justin Herbert’s next playoff victory will be his first. Same goes for Sam Darnold. And Aaron Rodgers has not posted a postseason victory since 2021.

Nix has delivered some ugly quarters and halves, last week among them. It is why even some of his comebacks get dinged since he sprayed an extinguisher on fires he started.

In the end, though, he has done his part without, as Warner explained before the season, a remarkable cast.

He has played a significant role while being asked to take on as much responsibility as any sophomore quarterback in recent memory.

The Broncos are not a Super Bowl team in the traditional sense, not without more weapons offensively, and a special teams boost from Marvin Mims Jr. But they do have a defense that generates pressure and, if the Chargers’ win is any indication, remains capable of displaying sticky fingers.

And they have a quarterback they trust. Broncos Country understands it — they lived through 13 underwhelming starters after Manning. The locker room knows it.

And Martz gets it.

“I would love to coach that kid,” said Martz, who coached Warner to a Super Bowl title in his second season. “Absolutely, love it.”

Martz was right about Nix. All Nix has done is put himself in a position to win a championship.

But let’s be realistic: it is not a failure if he doesn’t.

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