Sean Payton Details How He Found Out Bo Nix Suffered a Season-Ending Ankle Injury

Sean Payton shocked NFL fans on Saturday night shortly after the Broncos’ 33–30 overtime win over the Bills in the divisional round when he shared that quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending fracture in his ankle. Fans hadn’t noticed Nix suffer the injury during the contest, and he seemed to walk off the field O.K. after the victory. So, what happened?

On Sunday, Payton provided some more context about Nix’s injury, including how he found out about it.

Nix apparently was hurt on the running play he completed with six minutes left of overtime. He lost two yards on the play. The next call was a pass to Marvin Mims, which was incomplete, but gave the Broncos yardage when defensive pass interference was called on Buffalo. Nix then kneeled on the third down play to set kicker Will Lutz up for the game-winning field goal.

Payton said that when Nix came over after centering the ball on third down, the coach chest bumped him to celebrate. Nix then said “careful” to Payton, and shared that his ankle hurt. Payton replied by telling him to enjoy the field goal and that he would be fine.

“As he comes over [to the sideline], I kind of chest bump him, jab him, like, ‘Fricking A.’ And he's like, ‘Careful.’ It was then I’m like, ‘You all right?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘But, man, it’s hurting.’ And I said, ‘What do you got?’ He said, ‘My ankle,’ and I said, ‘All right.’ I said, ‘You'll be fine,’ and I tapped him in the chest again. I said, ‘Just enjoy this field goal.’”

Nix then underwent X-rays in the locker room where it was determined that he fractured a bone in his ankle. Payton went to check on Nix, who was surrounded by his family and backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who will start for the Broncos in the AFC championship.

“Bo was kind of sitting outside the locker room, leaning up against the wall. His wife, his parents, his family there, I think Stiddy, a few others. And I just asked him how he was doing, ‘Are you hanging in there?’ And I said to you guys last night, this is a strong-minded individual. Obviously it was disappointing right at that moment to get to this point. And so, that's essentially what took place after the game.”

Broncos coach Sean Payton details the circumstances of learning about Bo Nix's season-ending ankle fracture:

"As he comes over [to the sideline], I kind of chest bump him, jab him, like, 'Fricking A.' And he's like, 'Careful.' It was then I'm like, 'You all right?' And he said,… pic.twitter.com/9IoOcq9KHb
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 18, 2026

Payton ultimately decided to share the news of Nix’s injury with the media in a second post-game press conference right after learning of it so that the story came directly from him and not from a leaked source. He wasn’t able to share the news with the team right away, but he wanted the update to come from him regardless.

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