Bo Nix popped, again, back onto the soles of his feet. Nobody knew anything was wrong. Nothing dzܱbe wrong. The Broncos were a single play away from tying a bow on their greatest win in a decade, and their second-year quarterback had just the tiniest of limps — nothing that prevented him from taking a few-step drop seconds later and heaving a prayer to the outstretched arms of Marvin Mims.
Mims tossed his hand up for a flag, tackled to the turf by Bills corner Tre’Davious White. An official obliged. Mims got up and flexed, a Saturday night playoff thriller against the Bills iced. Nix centered the ball, came back to the sideline, and received a hearty chest-jab from head coach Sean Payton.
“Frickin’ A,” Payton told Nix.
Except Nix buckled.
“Ah, careful,” Nix told his coach, as Payton recounted Sunday.
“You all right?” Payton asked.
And somewhere in this moment, with a rollercoaster of euphoria at Empower Field not felt since the days of Peyton Manning and Gary Kubiak, Nix told Payton the five haunting words that might derail this dream in Denver.
“My ankle doesn’t feel right,” the quarterback said, according to a Broncos source.
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With Denver motoring into Buffalo territory and needing any variety of points to put away a win in overtime, a first-and-10 designed run for Nix came up empty two plays earlier. Bills safety Cole Bishop zipped through Denver's formation and wrapped up the Broncos quarterback by the ankles for a loss of 2 yards. Two plays later, Nix took a knee and walked off gingerly, that pass-interference call on Mims setting up a 23-yard chip-shot from kicker Wil Lutz to clinch a 33-30 win. Season over for Buffalo.
Season over for Denver, maybe, too.
That source, on the Broncos' sideline, told The Post he thought in the moment Nix could've just had a high-ankle sprain. Payton, too, had tapped Nix on the chest and told him he'd be "fine," and to simply enjoy Lutz's kick. Defensive tackle Malcolm Roach raised his fists to the heavens, and cornerback Pat Surtain II spread his arms and pattered around the green like a self-controlled airplane, and none of them had any idea as to what was wrong with Nix until Payton walked into his office after his postgame press conference.
There, waiting, was general manager George Paton and Beau Lowery, the Broncos' vice president for player health and performance. This was not an unusual sight. It ɲunusual how quickly they assembled.
“They didn't say anything," Payton recalled. "But I knew there was something."
They showed Payton an X-ray of Nix's ankle. It was fractured.
And suddenly, a Broncos organization that has clawed itself to an AFC Championship Game will have to pivot away from Nix, the quarterback shouldering the bulk of Payton's offense.
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'It's all about Bo'
In December, The Denver Post asked Broncos QB3 Sam Ehlinger: How much did he sense this organization was built around Nix and Payton's belief in him?
"Yeah, I think -- it's all about Bo," Ehlinger said. "A successful organization builds around a talented young quarterback, and I think that's the plan here. And I think it's going to pay off really well, in the long run."
Denver's infrastructure has coalesced around Nix in his first two NFL seasons as he's gradually earned more of Payton's trust to mold his system around him. Payton's talked at length in the past about "painting the picture" around his quarterback, and Denver's built a generally friendly situation for the 25-year-old Nix. Offensive-line pieces such as Garett Bolles and Quinn Meinerz have been developed and extended in front of him. Defensive pieces such as Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw were brought in to increase Denver's overall strength at playing complementary football.
Nix endured some second-year growing pains before hitting a stride in November, coinciding with the potentially season-ending injury of starting running back J.K. Dobbins. More responsibility than ever fell upon Nix's shoulders: he led the league in pass attempts (612) in the regular season, and his average attempts per game jumped from 35 to 38.5 after Dobbins went down.
"Coach has just put me in spots to throw it early and be aggressive early, and take some shots down the field, and start drives with a few passes," Nix said in late December.
Saturday represented Nix's greatest workload yet. In the postgame locker room, tight end Adam Trautman's eyes popped as The Post recounted Nix's final statistics against the Bills. Denver's second-year quarterback threw the ball 46 times (for 279 yards, three touchdowns and a pick). He ran the ball 12 times (for 29 yards).
"Oh, wow," Trautman said, angling his head in slight disbelief. "Gosh."
All in all, the Broncos ran a total of 68 plays from the line of scrimmage in their win against Buffalo. Nix either threw the ball or ran the ball himself on 85% of them.
"I think it's great," Trautman said, after a question on Payton's belief in Nix. "And Bo's earned the trust. Because we've been in situations like this ... we've been in these positions all year."
They were in that same position again on Saturday, staring directly down the barrel of a 14-3 season ending unceremoniously in the AFC divisional round. Denver assembled with four minutes to play in regulation, down 27-23 after a true seesaw of a playoff game, its offense having once again sputtered to a halt in a season of fits and starts.
Nobody flinched, Trautman said, because of the man in the middle.
"It's like, 'All right. We got Bo. Let's see what happens,'" Trautman said. "You're not like, 'Oh, we gotta be careful!'
"It's like, 'Nah, let's go.'"
Nix didn't say anything specific, Trautman said. It was just feel. The earned confidence of a quarterback who'd orchestrated a league-high seven game-winning drives in the regular season, and who left tackle Garett Bolles said has "ice in his veins." Nix hit Courtland Sutton for 11 yards to start the drive, and Sutton again for 25 on a third-and-11 three plays later, and dropped a beauty into Mims' outstretched arms to cap off yet another go-ahead fourth-quarter drive.
"Threw a freakin' dime to Marv," tight end Evan Engram said, postgame.
He smiled. Behind Engram, tackle Mike McGlinchey dapped up a couple of Broncos attendants. This was the mountaintop of the Nix-Payton relationship in Denver, the greatest show of faith in Nix yet.
None of them, in that locker room, knew that Nix was sitting outside in the hallway, his back against the wall one final time in 2025.
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'Stiddy' or not?
"You hanging in there?" Payton asked Nix, in that hallway.
Nix told Payton that he'd broken his left ankle previously, in high school. And broken his other ankle at Auburn. A devout Christian, Nix told Payton that God had a plan for him, the head coach recounted.
"I said, 'I didn't realize that,'" Payton joked to reporters Saturday night. "I said, 'If I hadn't known that, I wouldn't have drafted you.'"
Payton, too, told Nix that this Broncos team has lost key players all year. They played Sunday without Dobbins, starting center Luke Wattenberg and safety Brandon Jones. And the head coach told his quarterback that they'd "rise up for the next challenge."
There was a select handful of people listening in that hallway. Nix's wife, Izzy, was there. Nix's family was, too. And so was backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, the man tasked to rise up for the next challenge, one that'll be more difficult for these Broncos than any before in a 15-3 season living on the brink.
Stidham is a 29-year-old career backup, a former understudy of Tom Brady in New England, and one of the more unique personalities in Denver's locker room. He totes around a boom box on post-practice trips to the shower, blasting such classics as Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" or Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill." He also told reporters after Nix won the starting job in 2024 that , and was handed a two-year deal for $12 million this past offseason as insurance for Denver's young QB.
"I said this at the beginning of the season -- I feel like I've got a No. 2 that's capable of starting for a handful, a number of teams," Payton said Saturday night. "And I know he feels the same way. So watch out. Just watch."
Players and staff beyond Stidham found out about Nix's season-ending fracture roughly 15 minutes before Payton strode back to the postgame podium and dropped the bombshell news on reporters, another Broncos source told The Post. That night, forward-facing messages of support for Nix and Stidham alike came flooding in from players on social media.
"We got you 10," outside linebacker Nik Bonitto .
"Jarrett 'Nick Foles' Stidham! Let's (expletive) Rock Kid! 8! apountry, let's get behind him!" .
Stidham has started a total of four games in his six-year NFL career and posted an 87.7 passer rating in two starts at the end of 2023 after the Broncos benched Russell Wilson. His stock climbed to an all-time high this preseason, finishing 30-of-38 for 376 yards and four touchdowns in two games against the 49ers and Cardinals. And Payton continued to rain praise upon Stidham in a conference call Sunday.
"There's been practices where I’m looking at Vance (Joseph) and get pissed off," Payton said, "because Stiddy’s making our defense look bad.”
Payton clearly believes, then, that he has one of the better backup quarterbacks in the NFL. But Nix was the soul of this Broncos team, with an earned confidence in moments like Saturday's.
Denver will have to find a way to carry the faith without him.
