The Denver Broncos were forced to play without their star quarterback, Bo Nix, in the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots after he fractured his ankle in the Divisional Round versus the Buffalo Bills on one of the final plays of the game.
Nix underwent surgery for the injury and supported his team from a suite as the Broncos fell short in a 10–7 loss, a gut-wrenching end to their season after clinching the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC.
However, it appears Nix and head coach Sean Payton are not on the same page when it comes to Nix’s ankle injury, the recovery timeline, and his injury history as a whole.
That disconnect surfaced this week after Payton commented publicly that Nix’s injury was “predisposed” to happen sooner rather than later, citing the quarterback’s history of ankle injuries dating back to high school.
“I’ll tell you what — the one thing about him is he’s such a strong, faith-based guy,” Payton said after the win over the Bills. “He was sitting in the hallway with his family, and I went over and talked with him. He knows God has a plan for him. He said he had one [ankle injury] in high school, and then he said he had one at Auburn. I said, ‘I didn’t realize that.’ I joked, ‘If I would have known that, I wouldn’t have drafted you,’” Payton said while laughing.
However, Payton expanded on those comments this week following the Broncos’ season-ending loss, offering a more serious explanation of the injury.
“I think what was found was a condition that made it predisposed,” Payton said. “They always find a little bit more when they go in. It wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ it was a matter of ‘when.’ When you look at the play and evaluate it, the operating surgeon said, ‘This was going to happen sooner rather than later.’”
From Nix’s point of view, however, his head coach crossed a line — something he addressed publicly on Wednesday. Nix said Payton should not have shared details about his prior injury history, noting that the comments were inaccurate and overreaching.
“Yeah, nothing predisposed — nothing that was there originally. That might’ve gotten confused,” Nix said. “I don’t think you really should share how many surgeries I’ve had in the past, to be honest with you, because he doesn’t even really know that.”
Despite the disagreement, Nix made it clear he’s focused on moving forward rather than dwelling on the comments.
“I think it’s going to be good to get back, get to work, start from ground zero,” Nix added. “Work from the bottom up, get back to training. There’s nothing that really concerns me or scares me going forward — like I’m injury-prone or anything.”