The Broncos punched a ticket to the AFC Championship Game and then took a major gut punch.
Quarterback Bo Nix fractured a bone in his right ankle on the second-to-last play of overtime and his season is over, head coach Sean Payton said.
Nix threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns in a dramatic, 33-30 win over Buffalo in the divisional round.
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In overtime, he led Denver 75 yards in six plays but in the process sustained an injury that will require surgery and mean that backup Jarrett Stidham starts for the Broncos a week from Sunday when they host either New England or Houston with a trip to Super Bowl LX in the balance.
Payton said the play happened just before Nix threw a deep ball for Marvin Mims Jr. that drew a defensive pass interference flag and moved the Broncos to victory’s doorstep.
One snap before, Nix ran a sweep to his left and was tackled for a 2-yard loss. The hit looked relatively innocuous, but Nix was limping slightly after the play.
After the penalty, Nix took a snap and moved to his right to center the ball and take a knee. As he went down, his right foot buckled under his leg. Nix grimaced and walked off the field.
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Kicker Wil Lutz won the game with a 24-yard field goal, but Nix soon found out the news.
“I’ll tell you what, the one thing about it, he’s such a strong, faith-based guy,” Payton said, noting he turned to levity when talking with his quarterback. “He was sitting in the hallway with his family and I went over and we were all talking to him. He knows God’s got a plan for him. He said he had one in high school and then he had one at Auburn. And I said, ‘I didn’t realize that. If I’d have known that, I wouldn’t have drafted you.’”
Nix is scheduled to have surgery to repair the fracture on Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama, and will be performed by Dr. Normal Waldrop, who is a foot and ankle specialist.
“He’s a tough cookie,” Payton said of his quarterback. “And, listen, he’s the second quarterback in Year 2 to take his team to a championship game. The first was (Kansas City’s Patrick) Mahomes.”
Now the Broncos will play for a spot in the Super Bowl with Jarrett Stidham as their starter and Sam Ehlinger as the backup.
“I’ll say this, what you’ve seen, which is very limited, (Stidham) is ready,” Payton said. “I said this at the beginning of the season, I feel like I’ve got a No. 2 that is capable of starting for several teams and I know he feels the same way.
“Watch out. Just watch.”
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All the same, this is a devastating blow for the Broncos, who had rallied around Nix over his two years as their starter. Denver is 12-2 in one-score games this year and much of that is credited to Nix, a calm operator in pressure situations.
Payton did not have a chance to tell the team in the postgame locker room. He said under normal circumstances he would have tried to keep an injury from becoming public until a Monday morning team meeting, but knew there was no way that would happen given Nix’s stature and the impact of the injury.
Reporters waited for Nix to come to the podium in Denver’s postgame news conference room, knowing Nix is usually the last to speak. Instead, Payton returned the lectern in a brown jacket over a green sweatshirt and delivered the news to reporters.
“Look, they will be disappointed,” Payton said of the rest of his team. “There will be a lot of emotions and then the refocus takes place. We celebrate the season for him and, listen, ‘Stiddy’ is ready. And we’ll be ready for the next challenge.”
Nix sustained transverse process fractures in his back last year against Las Vegas, but did not miss any game time due to the injury. Late in the season, he also injured his ankle and had a clean-up procedure after Denver’s wild-card round loss to Buffalo that kept him from, among other things, participating in the Pro Bowl games.
Nix also broke his ankle at Auburn in November 2021. It was not immediately clear if the three injuries were all to his right ankle.
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