Broncos quarterback Bo Nix suffered a broken bone in his right ankle on the final series of Denver\u2019s 33-30 overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills, an injury that will require surgery and keep him out for the rest of the season, coach Sean Payton announced.<\/p>\n
Nix is scheduled to have surgery in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Jarrett Stidham will be the starter for the Broncos in next week\u2019s AFC Championship Game against either the New England Patriots or Houston Texans. Sam Ehlinger will be his backup.<\/p>\n
\u201cStiddy\u2019s ready to go,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n
The announcement was a stunning one and came after Payton had initially addressed the media following Denver\u2019s thrilling overtime win, then returned to provide the update on his starting quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing about it is he\u2019s such a strong, faith-based guy,\u201d Payton said of Nix. \u201cHe knows God\u2019s got a plan for him. \u2026 He\u2019s a tough cookie. This team all year has lost key players. We\u2019ll rise up for the next challenge and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury happened late in Denver\u2019s final drive, as Nix ran to the left on first-and-10 and was tackled for a 2-yard loss by Bills safety Cole Bishop. Nix then drew a pass interference penalty on a deep throw to Marvin Mims Jr. He then limped off the field after kneeling the ball to set up Wil Lutz\u2019s game-winning field goal.<\/p>\n
Nix, consoled by his family and Payton after the game, told his coach he suffered a similar injury in high school and again at Auburn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I didn\u2019t realize that. If I had known that, I wouldn\u2019t have drafted you,\u2019\u201d Payton told Nix, a joke that belied the hurt both men were feeling in the aftermath of what proved to be a bittersweet night for the franchise.<\/p>\n
Nix produced 308 yards of total offense and threw three touchdown passes on Saturday. He led a go-ahead drive late in the fourth quarter, hitting Mims on a picture-perfect 26-yard pass in the front corner of the end zone. He followed that up by guiding the Broncos into field-goal range after Ja\u2019Quan McMillian\u2019s diving interception of Josh Allen during Buffalo\u2019s first possession of overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him, his passion, his composure, his leadership, his running ability, Bo can make a play out of anything,\u201d Mims said in Denver\u2019s locker room before news of Nix\u2019s season-ending injury had reached players. \u201cHe\u2019s been great this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nix guided the Broncos to 24 regular-season wins during his first two seasons, tied for the most by a quarterback in his first two seasons in NFL history. He helmed the Broncos to a No. 1 seed in the AFC after they tied a franchise record with 14 wins. He authored seven game-winning drives in the regular season to add to his first such postseason drive Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Now, as the Broncos prepare to play for a berth in the Super Bowl, Nix will be forced to watch from afar as he recovers from next week\u2019s surgery. Payton said he typically would have waited until a team meeting the following morning to share the news of an injury with the magnitude of the one Nix suffered Saturday. But the odds of the news not getting out, Payton said, \u201cwere impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn essence, I\u2019m talking to the team now,\u201d Payton said. \u201cThey\u2019ll be disappointed. There will be a lot of emotions. And then the refocus takes place. We celebrate the season for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the Broncos will turn to Stidham, the 29-year-old veteran who has made four career starts, including two with Denver at the end of the 2023 season. He has never started a playoff game. Stidham was a fourth-round pick of the Patriots in 2019, spending one season behind Tom Brady and one season with the Las Vegas Raiders before signing with Denver to back up Russell Wilson ahead of the 2023 season. Stidham then competed with Nix for the starting job in training camp ahead of the 2024 season, but the job went to Nix.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s ready,\u201d Payton said of Stidham. \u201cI said this at the beginning of the season: I feel like we have a (backup quarterback) who is capable of starting for a number of teams. I know who feels the same way. Watch out. Just watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broncos quarterback Bo Nix suffered a broken bone in his right ankle on the final series of Denver\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[258,7,6,3207],"class_list":{"0":"post-685637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-denver-broncos","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-top-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115913880087338876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}