Broncos’ Defense Gives Them a Chance Even Without Bo Nix

In a week filled with social media posts about how good life was back in 2016, it’s fitting that the Broncos are returning to the AFC championship game for the first time since that fun-filled year many people are having trouble moving on from.

The Broncos’ defense may not be as good as the “No Fly Zone” group that carried this franchise to a Super Bowl title a decade ago, but there’s room for them to reach another level, one that will be desperately needed after the shocking postgame news that Bo Nix sustained a broken ankle in the 33–30 overtime victory over the Bills.

The 2026 defense is capable of carrying this team all the way after forcing the Bills into five turnovers. Most importantly, they stopped Josh Allen with a chance to win the game, possibly the most difficult challenge an NFL defense has today.

Peyton Manning was the Broncos’ starter in 2016 when the defense needed to be legendary to carry the Hall of Famer—who had very little arm strength left—to his second Lombardi Trophy. Perhaps the Broncos’ current offensive situation isn’t that bad when remembering how very little offense they had a decade ago. But this one will take time for the Broncos to get over because Nix, the 2024 first-round pick, delivered a special performance and showed off his ceiling that continues to arch higher than his rainbow shot to Marvin Mims Jr. for the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of regulation.

No, this isn’t summer 2016, but winter ’26 was shaping up to be the season where the football public finally started believing in Sean Payton’s Broncos, even if it lasted for just an hour.

The Broncos will have to march on without their ascending second-year quarterback after Payton announced that Nix will be sidelined for the rest of the playoffs. Backup Jarrett Stidham will now start the AFC title game against the winner of Sunday’s divisional matchup between the Patriots and Texans.

Maybe life won’t be as good as 2016 for Broncos fans after the devastating news, but there’s still a chance because what Payton has built goes beyond the quarterback or the dominant defense. This is a complete team that has a knack for finding ways to win games.

It wasn’t dethroning the Chiefs as AFC West champions after a decade of dominance or clinching the No. 1 seed that turned the doubters into believers. It was Denver beating Buffalo in overtime that finally got this team the respect it deserves. With the franchise’s first playoff victory in a decade, the fraud allegations should now be a thing of the past in Denver, even with the loss of Nix. But the tumble that this franchise took after reaching the mountaintop in 2016 doesn’t seem that long ago when you factor in everything Payton and his coaching staff have improved since arriving in ’23.

They hit rock bottom with a 70–20 loss against the Dolphins in September 2023, probably the first sign Payton realized that he was not going to revive Russell Wilson’s career and make the most of a bad situation, which might have hurt the ego of the brash coach. But admitting their failures and eating the dead money on Wilson’s massive contract was the beginning of this team reshaping the roster. Payton got out of Vance Joseph’s way and allowed the defensive coordinator to operate one of the best units in the league the past few seasons—and Joseph is now a top candidate for head coaching openings.

It took Payton time to build the offense, but he went all in using the No. 12 pick on Nix, whom many were quick to give a high-floor, low-ceiling grade, thinking of him as the safe option in the 2024 draft. Payton raised the ceiling with everything he threw at him on the field. I don’t mean to write about Saturday’s win as if they won the Super Bowl. But they’ve been overlooked all season and I can’t remember the last time a No. 1 seed in the AFC got this little respect as a Super Bowl contender. And rattling off Payton’s Denver milestones could now be necessary to inspire confidence in a team that lost its starting quarterback before the AFC title game.

And, yes, the Broncos deserve some blame for that lack of respect. They nearly lost to the Titans, Raiders, Jets, Giants and Commanders. But they also nearly lost to the Bills, too. The Broncos continue to find ways to win and that’s a testament to Payton and his coaching staff.

You could see the confidence growing within Payton when he told the CBS broadcast at halftime that his team was about to reap the benefits in the final two quarters from having wild-card weekend off. Obviously, it wasn’t that easy, because the Broncos blew a 23–10 advantage in the second half and were down 27–23 with 4:11 left in regulation. But maybe the extra rest paid off when Nix quickly responded with an eight-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that ended with the first playoff moment of his young career—the high archer to Mims will go down in Broncos’ history. Nix finished 26-of-46 for 279 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Allen went 25-of-39 for 283 yards, three touchdowns and four total turnovers.

The Broncos showed how badly they wanted it when Allen stepped onto the field in overtime needing a field goal to advance. Instead, Ja’Quan McMillian wrestled the ball away from Brandin Cooks to save the game for Denver. You better start believing when you do that to Allen in the clutch and force him to endure another playoff heartbreaker.

Eventually, the sting of losing Nix for the rest of the postseason will go away and the Broncos will remember their team accomplishments for getting this far. Nix was instrumental in beating the Bills, but that was a team performance that got them a 5-to-1 turnover advantage.

Talanoa Hufanga applying monster hits, Nik Bonitto swarming the quarterback and Patrick Surtain II finding the strength to continue playing after taking a shot to the shoulder are all reasons why the Broncos are still alive in these playoffs, even if not many will give them a shot without Nix.

It’s funny how Nix draws criticism for having uneven performances in his first two NFL seasons, which played into why the Broncos were viewed as a pretender for most of the season. But now that the Broncos won’t have Nix on the field next week, they are once again being overlooked.

Maybe Denver can still party like it’s 2016 because its defense is capable of saving the day.

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