By: David Gardy Ermann[1]
For the first time since the 2015-16 season, the Denver Broncos will be in the playoffs. The last time the team made it to the postseason, Peyton Manning—in his final career game—led the Broncos to victory in Super Bowl 50.
Now, eight seasons later, the Broncos are headed back to the playoffs. Instead of being led by a future hall-of-fame quarterback at the tail-end of his career, this time the Broncos are led by rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
Although a rookie, Nix already seems prepared to succeed in the NFL. Following the team’s week 15 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, head coach Sean Payton found that Nix inspired confidence and wouldn’t “flinch” when the team needed him late in the game. Offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey described Nix’s traits similarly to his head coach, saying that the rookie quarterback “didn’t blink” in the big moments of the game.
Three weeks later, he helped secure a playoff berth for the Broncos by beating the Kansas City Chiefs 38-0 in the regular season finale. Team captain and cornerback Patrick Surtain II said that Bo Nix “changed the ceiling a lot” for the team this year by having “the right mindset, always staying composed, [having] the right confidence and attitude.”
That confidence, as Surtain called it, is critical for the success of Nix and the Broncos. However, it is really self-efficacy that is critical to success, more so than confidence. Confidence is often used colloquially in place of the psychology term self-efficacy. (Gardy Ermann, 2024; Johnson, 2019, p.5.) Whereas confidence is a strong belief in achieving a certain outcome, self-efficacy is a strong belief in achieving a positive outcome. (Gardy Ermann, 2024.) Albert Bandura, a psychologist and Stanford professor who led the early development of self-efficacy research, explained that “[c]onfidence is a nondescript term that refers to strength of belief but does not necessarily specify what the certainty is about.” (Bandura, 1997.)
Nix has displayed a level of self-efficacy throughout his rookie season (e.g., never flinching or blinking in big moments) and, as he led his team into the playoffs, it is evident that he has the right mindset to succeed in this year’s playoffs and in the rest of his NFL career.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is derived from four primary sources, including mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states. (Pfitzner-Eden, 2016; Bandura, 1997.) Mastery experiences or, in other words, prior successful performances, are understood to “generally have the strongest effect on self-efficacy development, because they are the most authentic indicators of one’s capabilities.” (Pfitzner-Eden, 2016.) “Greater self-efficacy derived from previous performance accomplishment determines sustained effort and persistence, which is key to overcoming failures, ultimately improving performance.” (Griffiths.)
Following the Broncos 38-0 win over the Chiefs, Nate Burleson–a football commentator and former NFL wide receiver–explained that the “dominant performance” was “great for [the team’s] confidence”, and specifically great for Bo Nix’s confidence, because the postseason is “a lot of mental” and now “they can look in the mirror and feel like they are the best team going into the postseason.” (Week 18, The NFL Today on CBS.)
Nix’s self-efficacy (i.e., colloquially stated as confidence) is evident to his coaches, teammates, and the fans and commentators watching his on-field play. As Nate Burleson identified, Nix’s dominant performance against the Chiefs (i.e., a mastery experience) will lead to increased confidence (i.e., self-efficacy).
Bandura explained that “highly efficacious [people] act, think, and feel differently” than those who are nonefficacious; “[t]hey produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.” As Nix continues to build upon his early accomplishments, we can expect that he will put together a successful NFL career.
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REFERENCES
Bandura A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, NY: Freeman.
Gardy Ermann, David. Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield Showcase the Importance of Self-Efficacy in NFC Divisional Round Match-up. Beyond Strength: Journal of Psychology of Sport, 2024. https://beyondstrength.net/2024/01/20/jared-goff-and-baker-mayfield-showcase-the-importance-of-self-efficacy-in-nfc-divisional-round-match-up/.
Griffiths, Sarah. Self Efficacy in Sport and Exercise: Determining Effort, Persistence and Performance. BelievePerform. https://members.believeperform.com/self-efficacy-sport-exercise-determining-effort-persistence-performance/
Johnson, Lauren Noelle. “Leader Efficacy Perceptions and Engagement in Self-Directed Professional Development” (2019). Ed.D. Dissertations. 121.
Pfitzner-Eden, Franziska. “Why Do I Feel More Confident? Bandura’s Sources Predict Preservice Teachers’ Latent Changes in Teacher Self-Efficacy” (2016). Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 7.
“Week 18.” The NFL Today on CBS, Season 46, Episode 19, CBS Broadcasting Inc., January 5, 2025, Television.
[1] David Gardy Ermann is a Counsel at FanDuel Group. The information contained in this article reflects the opinion(s) of the author and is not an official opinion of FanDuel Group.
