Why Rams Should Keep Eye on Broncos Drama

WOODLAND HILLS, Ca. The Los Angeles Rams have suddenly found themselves looking at a replacement for Matthew Stafford, should he retire after next season, that wasn't a possibility a few weeks ago.

Payton's Words and the Fallout

In a story captured by Sports Illustrated's Mike Kadlick, he detailed the fallout of Bo Nix's season-ending ankle injury in the AFC Divisional Round.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton said this after the game.

“He said he had [a broken ankle] in high school,” Payton explained. “And then he said he had one at Auburn, and I said, ‘I didn’t realize that, if I’d known that I wouldn’t have drafted you.’”

While it's up for debate for which the tone and intention those words were meant to be said with, Payton continued to expand on his original comments on Wednesday.

“It wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ it was a matter of ‘when,'” he explained. “Because when you look at the play and you’re trying to evaluate it, he said—the doctor, operating surgeon—said that this was going to happen, sooner than later. Now you go about the rehab, proper orthotics, all those things.”

Nix would then give his response.

“Nothing predisposed, nothing that was there originally,” the quarterback explained. “That might have gotten confused. Just a simple step with my foot up in the air, my body weight came down on it, sort of got twisted up. ... It could have been a worse landing, but I think all that force went into the only place it could.”

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix gets ready to fire a pass to a receiver while the Bills defense keep an eye on him during first half action at Empower FIeld at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Jan. 17, 2026. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“I don't think he really should share how many surgeries I've had in the past, to be honest with you,” Nix continued, regarding Payton. “He doesn't even really know that. But it's going to be good to get back, get back to work.”

Awkward.

Why This Matters to the Rams

Sean Payton is like cooking on high heat. The food will get to where you want it, and then it will burn...until the food financially ruins your franchise, retires, spends an offseason advocating for a job Brandan Staley already has, before trying the recipe again in Denver, where the food throws out the ingredients they don't like in a cold and callous manner.

Payton is a brilliant coach with minimal people skills and a propensity to have his egotistical predisposition pop out when blame comes his way. Why Payton would say what he said about Nix is unclear, but this is the same man who tried every backhanded tactic to deprive Russell Wilson of his money.

Bo Nix is from the new generation. His dad is an Auburn and Alabama high school football coaching legend. Nix himself was Mr. Alabama football. He left all that behind to go to Oregon because he was miserable under Bryan Harsin and the move paid off ten fold.

If Nix can abandon all that, he'll force his way out of Denver if things go sideways with Payton, and the Broncos invested too much in Payton to choose Nix over him. Give it another year, and with Matthew Stafford's future being unclear, Nix has risen as a potential replacement considering where this predictable train is going.

All I'm going to say is that if Sean Payton wants to keep his franchise QB, make sure Sean McVay, Bo Nix, and multiple bottles of Tequila don't find themselves at a resort together in Cancun.

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