In the postgame swirl, Alex Forsyth made a wrong turn.\n<\/p>\n
The adrenaline of a 33-30 overtime win over Buffalo began to fade Saturday evening, but so much more sat right there for the Broncos offensive lineman to consider.\n<\/p>\n
The week ahead. The AFC Championship Game at Empower Field. A trip to the Super Bowl on the line.<\/p>\n
As Forsyth pulled out of the stadium, however, he went the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Road closed ahead. Standstill traffic.<\/p>\n
He sat with his thoughts. Then his phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
A group message lit up with a text from a friend.<\/p>\n
Bo Nix broke his ankle. Out for the season.<\/p>\n
Forsyth assumed his friend had bad information.<\/p>\n
![\"Denver](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-CHIEFS_xxDSC9272.jpg\")
Denver Broncos center Alex Forsyth (54) keeps his eyes on Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jeffrey Bassa (31) during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured it was one of those fake football accounts,\u201d he told The Denver Post this week. \u201cI was like, \u2018Nah, I think you got fooled.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Forsyth had just seen Nix in the postgame training room. The third-year center has ankle issues himself, missed 16 snaps Saturday and was evaluated again after the game. He talked with Nix, a teammate in Denver for two years and at the University of Oregon in 2022, briefly about the game while waiting around the X-ray room.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think anything of it,\u201d Forsyth said. \u201cI\u2019ve played with Bo since Oregon, so I know when something\u2019s wrong. I couldn\u2019t tell or anything.\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Nix didn\u2019t yet know he\u2019d broken a bone in his right ankle<\/a>, though he suspected something was wrong. He didn\u2019t yet know he\u2019d have surgery less than 72 hours later<\/a>. That there was no way he could continue playing this year.\n<\/p>\n It all turned out to be true. Forsyth\u2019s friend was right.<\/p>\n Teammates and coaches found out in myriad ways.<\/p>\n Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi was driving home with his son, who told him. He, too, thought bad information must have somehow spread.\n<\/p>\n Lil\u2019Jordan Humphrey was on his way to the parking lot when a teammate told him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt broke my heart a little bit,\u201d said the wide receiver, who hours earlier hauled in a touchdown from Nix against the Bills.\n<\/p>\n Fellow quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger were in the training room with Nix while he was evaluated and the imaging was done. They each described the moments that followed as \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Head coach Sean Payton, his team scattered to the wind, decided to announce the news to reporters right away Saturday night. He did so because he knew the injury wouldn\u2019t stay quiet until a Monday morning team meeting, but in the process, he also seized an opportunity to set an immediate tone.\n<\/p>\n Payton didn\u2019t just say Stidham would be fine. He pushed his chips to the middle of the table right away.<\/p>\n \u201cJust watch,\u201d he said defiantly of his No. 2. In the days since, Payton\u2019s confidence has sometimes veered toward bravado.\n<\/p>\n Part of that really is about belief in Stidham<\/a>. Much of it, though, is because Denver is not scrambling this week trying to figure out how to approach life without Nix. Really, Payton and the Broncos front office have spent the past three years assembling a team and an operation built for this exact moment. Now comes the biggest stress test to date on the biggest stage yet.<\/p>\n \u2018Hurricane proof\u2019 Payton often talks about identifying players who are \u201churricane proof.\u201d\n<\/p>\n He attributes the metaphor to legendary University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.\n<\/p>\n \u201cToughness really is not necessarily about physical, but the mental and how much you can take,\u201d Payton said earlier this season. \u201cAnd (Saban) likened it to hurricane windows. You can get the 139s, the 150s or the 189s. Obviously, if you go up, they cost more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Finding the right players, Payton said, is \u201cfinding the 189s.\u201d\n<\/p>\n In November, Payton implored reporters to pick a Super Bowl team. Any of them. They all go through storms.<\/p>\n \u201cThey come every season,\u201d Payton said then, providing an ominously accurate forecast.\n<\/p>\n Denver at the time had just lost running back J.K. Dobbins to a foot injury<\/a>. All-Pro corner Pat Surtain II was out with a pectoral strain, too<\/a>. That\u2019s bad weather, to be sure, though Denver had won seven straight and would ultimately run that streak out to 11.<\/p>\n Stunningly losing your quarterback 60 minutes from the Super Bowl isn\u2019t a squall.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the eye wall of a Category 5.<\/p>\n Payton, however, thinks his team will come out the other side Sunday still standing.<\/p>\n He built the Broncos that way.<\/p>\n \u201cIt starts with really the right type of DNA that you\u2019re bringing in,\u201d he said in November. \u201cYou\u2019re bringing in these guys with grit, toughness, football I.Q.. Generally speaking, those are hard-weathered players that can withstand the storms that come in our league.\u201d<\/p>\n Hard and dark times<\/p>\n When Payton arrived in Denver in early 2023, he promised players on the roster one thing: The past did not matter. Everybody would be evaluated on what he, his staff and the front office saw with their own eyes going forward.<\/p>\n Some talented players didn\u2019t last more than the first season, like 2020 first-round receiver Jerry Jeudy.\n<\/p>\n Some who\u2019d been leaders under previous coaches did not work for Payton, like guard Dalton Risner and safety Justin Simmons.\n<\/p>\n Others, though, found their way through the chaff and into the light.<\/p>\n One example: 2023 undrafted rookie Jaleel McLaughlin. The North Carolina native spent part of his childhood in and out of homelessness. He played Division II and then FCS football. His pre-dawn workouts became the stuff of legend<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Payton liked the tape. He loved the rest.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard the report on how he arrived at being a candidate to be in the NFL,\u201d Payton said. \u201cThen the question was, \u2018Is he good enough?\u2019 That question has been answered.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Talent and traits matter. There is a performance baseline that is required to make it in the NFL. But to Payton, once that line is satisfied, grit is a differentiating factor.\n<\/p>\n That\u2019s how nickel Ja\u2019Quan McMillian, undrafted in 2022, went from early bench player for Payton to starting nickel to now one of the premier slot men in the game<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, this week, acknowledged to The Post that McMillian doesn\u2019t hit the physical thresholds Denver sets for defensive backs.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s undersized,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cHe\u2019s fast but not really fast. But he was always tough and smart and the ball always found him. That\u2019s his best trait. Having him here for three years, you watch him and how much he\u2019s overcome, first with his physical traits. But he\u2019s so tough mentally and he\u2019s so smart.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen things get hard and dark, he\u2019s at his best. You need guys like that. Sometimes you have guys who are really, really good athletes, they\u2019re the perfect profile, but when things get tough, those traits go away.\u201d The Broncos prioritize players like McMillian and McLaughlin. They, like everybody, need elite talent and they have it in Surtain, OLB Nik Bonitto, DT Zach Allen, RG Quinn Meinerz and others. But they\u2019ve managed to collect high-end players who are \u201clike-minded,\u201d as Allen describes it, and then fill in the roster based on a willingness to sacrifice on talent or traits for players they believe fit their mental mold.\n<\/p>\n \u201cSean\u2019s done a good job of finding players like that,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cGuys who love football. Guys who just earn their way. Our defense is full of them. Malcolm Roach has earned his way. Not a profile guy by any means. Undersized for a defensive lineman. But just tough, smart and the energy is so positive every day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The Grit Lab<\/p>\n Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his 1841 essay, \u201cSelf-Reliance,\u201d that \u201can institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.\u201d\n<\/p>\n If the Broncos\u2019 football operation is an institution, Payton casts the shadow.<\/p>\n He is obsessive about winning. \u201cManiacal,\u201d he\u2019s said multiple times, about any detail he deems as being even remotely potentially impactful to that cause<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n That does not mean everything he does is right, that he handles every situation with aplomb or that those tendencies can\u2019t sometimes get in his own way.<\/p>\n What it does provide, though, is clarity.<\/p>\n Once a goal is set forth, it does not go back to the shelf. Once a standard is set, it cannot be lowered.<\/p>\n The wrench turns only one direction.<\/p>\n In 2023, Payton\u2019s first year, he said he\u2019d be \u201cpissed\u201d if the Broncos didn\u2019t make the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n The next year, he stiff-armed any notion that carrying $53 million in dead salary cap from Russell Wilson\u2019s contract and playing a rookie quarterback should dampen expectations for his team. He reminded everyone about those dead cap charges after Denver made the playoffs<\/a>, but never used them to head off a potential step back because he never believed a step back would come.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have like-minded people, excuses aren\u2019t going to be an option,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the past two years have been so good is because we\u2019ve been able to bring in like-minded people. Guys really, genuinely enjoy spending time with each other and the more time you spend here, the better you\u2019re going to be.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Players can sharpen skills, get stronger or become more familiar with schematics, to be sure. But they can also learn to become grittier. More hurricane-proof.<\/p>\n Payton said as much Thursday, citing Dr. Angela Duckworth<\/a>, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the 2016 book, \u201cGrit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.\u201d \u201cObviously, it\u2019s something that I think is learned to some degree,\u201d Payton said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like, \u2018Oh, I was just born with grit genes.\u2019 It can be developed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n It can be developed, Duckworth contends, not just in individuals but in organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that makes a difference, I think, is that if you understand what grit is at the individual level, then you see what you need at the team level,\u201d Duckworth told The Post this week. \u201cYou have to have a top-level goal which gives meaning and purpose to everything. You want all the arrows pointing in the same direction. \u2026 Who sets that goal? For a team like the Broncos, it\u2019s most often the coach. It keeps people aligned to the overall goal \u2014 obviously everybody wants to win the Super Bowl. But often there\u2019s a philosophy and a culture to the team.\u201d <\/p>\n Duckworth, who teaches a course at Penn called \u201cGrit Lab,\u201d hasn\u2019t worked with Payton previously but she\u2019s been rooting for Denver in the playoffs because she is friends with \u2014 and has received research funding from \u2014 Broncos owner Carrie Walton-Penner.\n<\/p>\n In 2018, Duckworth co-authored an article and wrote that \u201crestlessness with the status quo and an unrelenting drive to improve\u201d are fundamental to organizations with grit and that, \u201cclarity around high-level goals can be a competitive differentiator.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Payton believes that in Year 3, his Broncos have all of that.<\/p>\n The next challenge<\/p>\n Ultimately, none of this may matter Sunday against the Patriots.\n<\/p>\n Nix\u2019s loss is a big one, no matter how resolved the rest of the group is.<\/p>\n The gambling company Circa Sports earlier this week installed New England as a 5.5-point favorite and its risk manager, Jamey Pileggi, determined the Broncos would have opened as 1.5-point favorites had Nix not been injured.\n<\/p>\n That\u2019s a 7-point swing. Ten of Denver\u2019s wins this year have been by that margin or less. Six of the NFL\u2019s 10 postseason games thus far have been, too.\n<\/p>\n The Patriots matched Denver\u2019s 14 regular-season games and have dominated the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston so far in the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n Amazingly, only a Week 1 loss to Las Vegas, the worst team in football, produced the tiebreaker that put this game in Denver rather than Massachusetts.\n<\/p>\n Head coach Mike Vrabel\u2019s team is balanced, explosive and led by quarterback Drake Maye, a 2024 NFL Draft classmate of Nix\u2019s who authored an MVP-contending season.\n<\/p>\n They\u2019re good. They\u2019re favored. Most expect they\u2019ll win.<\/p>\n What had become clear over the course of 12 one-score wins, though, is that the Broncos do not rattle easily.<\/p>\n What has crystallized in the hours and days after Nix\u2019s injury is that they will not rattle even in the aftershock of one of the most surreal post-game emotion swings a group could endure.<\/p>\n Certainly, if the Broncos bow out, players and coaches will wonder what might have been. They will remember the year they had such a golden opportunity and when it changed just that fast, so close to the finish line.<\/p>\n Right now, though, Payton is betting he\u2019s built a fortress impenetrable to such thoughts as long as there is still an opponent ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything that\u2019s like, \u2018imagine if we had this,\u2019 that never crosses anybody\u2019s mind,\u201d Allen said.\n<\/p>\n Payton showed up Monday morning for a team meeting, the first time the group had been together since Nix\u2019s injury, and told them that Sunday would be determined not by how Stidham played, but by how everybody else did<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n He projected confidence, just like he did Wednesday when he implored Broncos fans to be loud and said they\u2019d have \u201cplenty of time to rest after this one. Two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n From the first days of training camp this year, Payton talked about this team as one that could make a championship run. He didn\u2019t guarantee it, but he said he wanted the group to be comfortable thinking and talking in those terms.<\/p>\n For as much as the earth moved beneath the Broncos\u2019 feet in the hour after Saturday\u2019s win, the reality at hand Sunday did not.<\/p>\n Two teams are left in the AFC. One of them is going to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n Payton, seemingly, hasn\u2019t even considered the possibility of the Broncos not being that team. His lengthened shadow envelops the locker room entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just knows what he\u2019s got,\u201d Humphrey said. \u201cHe knows what kind of coach he is, he knows what type of players he has in this locker room and he doesn\u2019t think it matters what the situation is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can go out there and handle business.\u201d\n<\/p>\n![\"DENVER](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-BILLSAO2_5937x.jpg\")
Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos gives instructions to his line during the first quarter against the Buffalo Bills at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
\n![\"CENTENNIAL](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOSAO2_2156aa.jpg\")
Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos speaks to offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi during practice at the Broncos Park in Centennial, Colorado on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n![\"DENVER](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-CHARGERSAO2_2445x.jpg\")
DENVER , CO – JANUARY 4: Jaleel McLaughlin (38) of the Denver Broncos sheds Tony Jefferson (23) of the Los Angeles Chargers during the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, January 4, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
\n![\"DENVER](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-JAGUARSAO2_3625x.jpg\")
Ja’Quan McMillian (29) of the Denver Broncos warms up before the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"Denver](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-SeanPayton-010926-TH-002.jpg\")
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton takes questions from the media after a Broncos team practice on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Centennial, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)\n<\/p>\n![\"Lil'Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-BILLSAO2_8288x.jpg\")
Lil\u2019Jordan Humphrey (17) of the Denver Broncos catches a touchdown pass from Bo Nix (10) as Darnell Savage (25) of the Buffalo Bills wraps him up during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n