{"id":685772,"date":"2026-01-18T04:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/685772\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T04:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:23:14","slug":"patriots-super-bowl-chances-get-major-shift-with-broncos-shocking-bo-nix-injury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/685772\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots’ Super Bowl chances get major shift with Broncos shocking Bo Nix injury news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patriots’ Super Bowl chances get major shift with Broncos shocking Bo Nix injury news<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New England Patriots<\/a> already had a chance to get to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

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That chance is greater now after the Denver Broncos<\/a> announced shocking Bo Nix injury news on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Not long after the Broncos beat the Bills<\/a> in overtime, head coach Sean Payton informed reporters that Nix had fractured his ankle on Denver’s final drive.<\/p>\n

Nix had finished out the drive, and although he showed a slight limp, no one saw this news coming.<\/p>\n

But this means the end of Nix’s season.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Bills are wasting Josh Allen’s prime, and it’s time to fire Sean McDermott<\/a><\/p>\n

In the AFC Championship Game, Jarrett Stidham will start, with Sam Ehlinger as his backup. Stidham hasn’t thrown a pass outside the preseason since 2023.<\/p>\n

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It makes whoever wins Sunday’s Divisional Round game between the New England Patriots and Houston Texans<\/a> look like they have a great shot at advancing to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

That raises the stakes.<\/p>\n

New England has arrived ahead of schedule. No one saw a turnaround this dramatic when Mike Vrabel was hired.<\/p>\n

But Drake Maye, in his second season, has progressed to an MVP level, and the players around him have raised their games, too.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Exploring 5 wild Broncos QB options to replace Bo Nix<\/a><\/p>\n

The Texans, particularly their defense, will be a formidable foe. The Patriots certainly can’t afford to look ahead.<\/p>\n

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But if New England wins Sunday, the path is clearer than it appeared. They’d just have to get past Stidham in a week’s time to advance to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

And while the Pats won’t be looking ahead, it’s certainly worth noting. This is shaping up as well as it could to give them a chance.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patriots’ Super Bowl chances get major shift with Broncos shocking Bo Nix injury news originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[215,925,258,833,7,253,3872,872,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,3875,1813,12357],"class_list":{"0":"post-685772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-bo-nix","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-drake-maye","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-houston-texans","14":"tag-jarrett-stidham","15":"tag-josh-allen","16":"tag-new-england","17":"tag-new-england-patriots","18":"tag-newengland","19":"tag-newenglandpatriots","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-patriots","22":"tag-sam-ehlinger","23":"tag-sean-payton","24":"tag-the-super-bowl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115914198704606735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685772","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=685772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}