It’s a common practice in the NFL for star quarterbacks to seek an edge by working with private coaches outside of their team’s facility. For Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, that means honing his craft with personal instructor David Morris and renowned throwing guru Tom House during his own time.
However, the relationship between a team’s coaching staff and these outside consultants hasn’t always been seamless. When head coach Sean Payton first arrived in Denver in 2023, he made headlines by banning Russell Wilson’s personal quarterback coach, Jake Heaps, from the building.
So, where does Payton stand on the trend of private QB coaches now that he has his own young signal-caller in Bo Nix?
Speaking at the NFL combine last week, Payton made his stance clear, drawing an analogy to the world of golf. He has no issue with Nix having a “swing coach”—as long as the work stays outside the team facility.
Payton elaborated by sharing a story from his early coaching days to illustrate just how much the profession has evolved. He recalled being a young assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1997 when Jon Gruden sent him to evaluate a prospect. That prospect was Jake Plummer.
“It was his pro day, and I was the only quarterback coach there,” Payton explained. “They said, ‘Coach, are you going to put him through?’ So I put him through 87 throws. There wasn’t a script, there wasn’t music or uniforms.”
The coach acknowledged that the landscape has changed dramatically since then, partly due to the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, which limited the amount of time players could spend at team facilities.
“I love that these opportunities for these private coaches exist,” Payton said. “Once [the players] come to us, then they’re with us. I’m comfortable if you have a swing coach, but on your own time.”
So, as Nix heads into his third NFL season, he is free to continue his offseason regimen with Morris and House. Just don’t expect those personal coaches to be getting a sideline pass anytime soon.
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