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Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who is out for Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots, is expected to be sidelined 12 weeks after undergoing surgery last week on his broken right ankle, sources told ESPN.
The recovery, not the surgery, is not thought to be the most challenging part of this injury. Nix is not supposed to put any weight on his ankle for at least four weeks, and he will miss 12 weeks altogether before he can return to activity, according to sources.
This eliminates any notion, far-fetched as it was, that Nix could somehow possibly pull a miraculous return for the Sunday, Feb. 8 Super Bowl LX in the event that Denver does advance.
During Sunday’s AFC Championship game at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Nix will be in a box with other injured Broncos, off his feet as doctors have instructed him to be.
Nix is expected to be largely recovered in time to be able to participate in the Broncos’ offseason program, but doctors are trying to be very intentional with what Denver’s quarterback can and can’t do over the next 12 weeks.
Nix suffered the injury late in overtime of Denver’s victory over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round. Broncos coach Sean Payton delivered the news in the aftermath of the game and immediately named Jarrett Stidham as the Broncos’ starting quarterback in the AFC Championship Game.
This marks the third time that Nix has broken his ankle playing football, but this break was in a different spot and doctors have told him that the injury is “nothing to be concerned about long term,” according to a source.
In the short term, the Broncos are replacing Nix with Stidham, who was the first free agent that Payton signed after he accepted Denver’s head coaching job.
“I’m not worried about Stiddy in this game,” Payton told reporters Friday. “I’m worried about everyone else and how we play. That really is the truth.”
Broncos Country also has publicly backed Stidham, with thousands of fans changing their social media avatars to photos of Stidham wearing sunglasses and earbuds. The picture is visible this week all over social media.
But while Stidham makes his first start of the season, Nix will miss the AFC Championship Game and a showdown against his good friend and quarterback draft classmate Drake Maye. The two quarterbacks have spent countless hours training together during the offseason, largely at Philip Rivers‘ training complex in Fairhope, Ala.
Nix, Maye and Rivers share an agent, and they grew close in the process leading up to the 2024 NFL draft and the offseasons that followed.
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