Sean Payton expects quarterback Bo Nix to participate in the latter part of Denver’s offseason program next month.
Payton said Saturday that the Broncos coaches and training staff will be “smart” with their third-year quarterback after he had a second operation on his right ankle last month, but that he will be fully healthy before training camp begins in late July.
“We’re going to be the ones kind of holding him back, if you will,” Payton said. “The follow-up procedure was not a surprise. I was just talking to (vice president of player health and performance Beau Lowery), we had five other players that had staged surgeries where there’s a step, they evaluate and then there’s a second step. He was the sixth that actually went through that. No surprises. We feel real good about where he’s at. You guys will have a chance to see that here in a few weeks.
“Clearly full speed by training camp. We just want to be smart relative to holding him back a little.”
The timeline for Nix’s return to action changed in late April when he had a follow-up procedure three months after initially fracturing his ankle in overtime of Denver’s AFC Divisional Round win over Buffalo.
Originally, Payton and others said Nix would be involved in Denver’s offseason program, which began May 4, and fully cleared for organized team activities when they begin June 2.
Payton defended the original timeline Saturday, saying he may end up being off by only a couple of weeks.
“Letap discuss the process of staging: Sometimes after the initial surgery, it doesn’t require a second one,” he said. “We had five other players that had A and B.”
Nix, the 2024 first-round draft pick, had a follow-up operation that may not have come as a surprise to the Broncos but also wasn’t always a certainty to happen this offseason.
Sources indicate to The Post that the follow-up operation was likely going to have to happen at some point — if not now, then likely after the 2026 season.
Nix’s rehab from the initial fracture repair in January went well enough that Dr. Norman Waldrop III, Nix and the Broncos decided they had a window to get it done now. Nix will now be limited in the offseason program, but the goal is that he’ll now enter the year without the prospect of another procedure hanging out there somewhere on the horizon.
Payton declined Saturday to share the exact nature of the second operation.
“I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “None of you guys know specifically what that means and I probably don’t either.”
Payton said he thought Nix was most likely to participate in some capacity in Denver’s mandatory minicamp, which runs June 16-18 and comes after two weeks of OTAs.
“You knows know from watching, (OTA and minicamp) kind of look the same and the only difference is in the minicamp the meeting time can be a little longer on the field, but it’s the same tempo,” Payton said. “He’s going to want to push that earlier. I’m probably — we’ll be smart with Bo. The trainers and the doctors.
“I’m sure you’ll see him. Probably in minicamp maybe. But he’ll be full speed and throwing and everything in July before we get back here.”
The fourth-year Broncos coach said he doesn’t think there’s been any communication issues between he and his quarterback after an early offseason sequence in which Payton said Nix’s ankle was “predisposed” to injury and Nix subsequently felt the need to clarify that he doesn’t have ongoing issues with his ankle and instead had a simple bone break that was repaired.
“He and I have been on the same page,” Payton said. “None of that’s been an issue. He laughs (about it).”
