Sean Payton came across a strange sight in the Broncos’ facility Tuesday morning.
His quarterback, Bo Nix, with a newly surgically repaired right ankle, was cruising around on a medical scooter.
“He was just up above us here,” the Denver head coach said of Nix from the front atrium of Denver’s facility, pointing up to the second-floor windows. “I said, ‘What are you doing? Getting your scooter laps in?'”
Payton and general manager George Paton provided the fullest accounting yet of Nix’s injury, a preexisting issue that made the fracture “a matter of when,” according to Payton, and an expectation he’ll be back to work in May.
“What was found was a condition that was predisposed — they always find a little more when they go in,” Payton told reporters Tuesday, a week after Nix had surgery performed by Dr. Norman Waldrop III in Birmingham, Alabama. “It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when. When you look at the play and you’re trying to evaluate it — the operating surgeon said that this was going to happen sooner than later. Now, you go about the rehab, proper orthotics, all those things.”
Payton said Nix, for the next several weeks, will work through stages of graduating from the scooter to crutches and then eventually to a walking boot.
Paton said Nix is currently tracking toward a return sometime in May, which is the month in which the Broncos will hold organized team activities and aligns with the 12-16 week timeline reported last week.
For now, Nix is scooting around the team facility.
“You have to know him. He’s fidgety to begin with,” Payton said. “He might have just been getting his scooter laps. He was up there, like, in an area he’d never be in department-wise. He’s handling it like a pro. Man, I’m sure there’s disappointment for him to have to watch. …
“Itap difficult to get as far as he brought us, and then also to see one of his contemporaries, someone in his draft class who he would have loved to have competed against, advance. Itap a tough deal.”
That, of course, is Nix’s pre-draft training partner and New England quarterback Drake Maye.
“(Nix) is been one of those players that I would say has been available,” Payton said. “There were others in that draft class that weren’t as available. I think the rehab coming off of this was strong. The news and the way it was explained was it was coming sooner rather than later.
“He’ll rehab his tail off and get back to being healthy.”
