Bo Nix wants the world to know: He has no concerns that he’s any kind of injury-prone quarterback.
“My ankles,” Nix said Wednesday, “are feeling really good.”
In a conference call with reporters, Nix contradicted his own head coach’s communication around the quarterback’s ankle fracture.
“Nothing predisposed, nothing that was there originally,” said Nix, who took questions for the first time since breaking his ankle Jan. 17 in a playoff win over the Bills. “That might’ve gotten confused.”
Nix, 25, has had multiple previous operations on his ankles dating back to high school, including a broken ankle while playing at Auburn in 2021. Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Tuesday he thought a doctor found “a condition that was, like, predisposed” when evaluating Nix’s ankle.
“Where, they always find a little bit more when they go in,” Payton said Tuesday. “And it wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ it was a matter of ‘when.’ So it wasn’t — because when you look at the play, and you’re trying to evaluate it, the doctor, operating surgeon said, ‘Oh, this was going to happen sooner than later.’”
Another source with knowledge of the situation, though, told The Denver Post that Payton was referring to previously-existing stress on the bone that doctors discovered on Nix’s ankle in the course of the operation — no chronic or long-suffering condition. Nix explained Wednesday that his body weight came down on his ankle on the overtime play when he suffered the break against Buffalo, and his lower half got “twisted up.”
“I think all that force went into the only place it could, and it was just one of those missteps,” Nix said. “Didn’t have any predisposed issues.”
Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) gets a block from RJ Harvey (12) while scrambling away from Kansas City Chiefs safety Jaden Hicks (21) at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
On the conference call, a reporter incorrectly posited that Payton told the media that Nix had told him he’d had three previous ankle surgeries. Payton previously told reporters after the 33-30 win over Buffalo that Nix told him he’d had two — one in high school, and one in Auburn — and joked to reporters that he wouldn’t have drafted Nix if he’d known that.
“He doesn’t really even know that,” Nix said of Payton. “But I think it’s going to be good to get back, get to work, start from ground zero. Work from the bottom up, get back to training. And nothing really that concerns me, nothing that scares me going forward.”
Earlier Wednesday, Broncos owner Greg Penner reiterated Nix’s sentiment, saying that he had “zero concern” over Nix’s long-term health and his surgery was “straightforward.”
Nix said it was a “typical bone break” that would rule him out for four to six weeks, putting him back well in time to return for the Broncos’ organized team activities in May. The quarterback said, too, that he was already planning to take roughly that same amount of time off before starting his offseason training, and therefore wouldn’t actually miss any time due to the operation.
“My sights are already on next year, and how I can be better, and how I can lead this team better,” Nix said.
The second-year quarterback threw for 3,931 yards and 25 touchdowns against 11 interceptions in 2025, leading the NFL in game-winning drives with seven. He threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns in the AFC divisional-round win over the Bills, before the stunning revelation that he fractured his ankle on the Broncos’ final drive of overtime.
“It’s just a bummer,” Nix said Wednesday. “It’s crushing. It’s defeating.”
The confusion around his long-term ankle health — Payton’s use of the term “predisposed” — will become highly relevant to Nix’s status as the face of the franchise entering his third season, coming off a berth in the AFC title game. Players and Denver’s front office are well aware of a three-year window across the remainder of Nix’s rookie contract before the Broncos would need to shell out big money for a long-term extension. Any issues with Nix’s long-term health could force the Broncos to reevaluate him as their true quarterback of the future.
Nix shrugged off any questions about his durability, noting that he hasn’t missed a game since that 2021 ankle injury at Auburn.
The quarterback watched Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Patriots from a suite at Empower Field, and called the experience of not being on the field “terrible.” Still, Nix put on a positive tone as he heads into an extended stretch of rehabilitation.
“I think all adversity is good,” Nix said. “All adversity sort of tests you, and challenges you, and puts you in a different spot. And I think, for me, it’s just going to make playing in one of these games that much more special.”
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