DENVER — Nick Foles went from backup quarterback to starter to Super Bowl MVP for the Philadelphia Eagles at the at the end of the 2017 season. But he had three regular-season starts to get prepared for the playoffs after Carson Wentz went down.
Jeff Hostetler got two regular-season starts for the 1990 New York Giants after Phil Simms suffered a season-ending injury, and that got him ready to lead the Giants to a Super Bowl.
Kurt Warner took over for Trent Green and led the 1999 Rams to a title, but he was the starter all season.
What the Denver Broncos are about to embark upon is tough to draw a reasonable comparison to. Long after the Broncos’ fantastic 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills, Broncos head coach Sean Payton returned to the media room, which is highly unusual. He announced that on the second-to-last play of the game, his quarterback Bo Nix suffered a broken bone in his ankle and is done for the rest of the season.
“They’ll be disappointed,” Payton said. “There will be a lot of emotions. Then the refocus takes place.”
Once the shock wore off, the question became: What does this mean for the Broncos as they get ready for the AFC championship game?
How does Bo Nix’s injury affect Broncos?
The Broncos don’t have time for self pity. They have an AFC title game eight days after Nix’s injury. They’ll face either the Houston Texans or New England Patriots, and do so with Jarrett Stidham starting at quarterback. Stidham has some familiarity with the Patriots, having spent his first two seasons in 2019 and 2020 with them.
Stidham has not thrown a pass in either of the last two seasons. He has four starts in his NFL career, two with the Raiders in 2022 and two more with the Broncos in 2023. His teams went 1-3 in those games.
Payton has been high on Stidham, who is on his second contract with the Broncos. His first, signed in 2023, was for $10 million. The one he signed before this season was for $12 million. That’s good money for a backup, even though the Broncos haven’t had to use him.
Like Dick Vermeil, the Rams coach who promised in 1999 after Green’s injury that “We will rally around Kurt Warner, and we will play good football,” Payton was confident and even a bit defiant about having to turn to Stidham.
“He’s ready,” Payton said. “I said this before the season, I feel like I’ve got a two that is capable of starting for a number of teams. Watch out. Just watch.”
The numbers don’t look that great. In 197 career NFL passes, Stidham has 1,422 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. That’s a passer rating of 78.3, which would get most NFL starters benched. But it’s not like the Broncos have much choice. The good news is that they revolve around a very good defense that finished third in the NFL in points allowed and second in yards allowed during the regular season. The Broncos will have to run it effectively on offense, and they were a middle-of-the-road running team during the season (16th in yards, 15th in yards per attempt).
And they’ll need Stidham to do his job when called upon. Stidham isn’t the runner that Nix is (just 101 yards on 37 attempts), so Payton will have to change the way he calls an offense. He, and Stidham, have a week to prepare for that.
“He’s experienced,” Payton said. “He has played in games. They’re different type players to some degree, and yet, they’re very close friends, as with Sam (Ehlinger, the Broncos’ quarterback behind Stidham). It’s a tight room. Sam will be our two, and here we go.”
Stidham’s first NFL pass since Jan. 7, 2024 will come in a game with a Super Bowl trip on the line. The Broncos have a challenge ahead.
Big edge for Broncos’ AFC opponent
The Nix injury changes the landscape of the rest of the playoffs. Whoever wins between the Texans and Patriots will be expected to win again against a team with a seldom-used backup quarterback.
It’s never that easy in the NFL. Payton has confidence in Stidham for a reason. The Broncos aren’t reliant on their quarterback to win games, either. The Texans or Patriots will still be facing one of the NFL’s best defenses and do it in Denver, which is tough to play at due to the high altitude. But it’s clearly an edge for the winner of Sunday’s Texans-Patriots game. And, if the Broncos advance to Super Bowl LX despite not having Nix, it will be an edge for the NFC champion there. One of the four teams that will be playing next weekend just lost its starting quarterback suddenly. That has an obvious effect on everyone else still vying for a title.
There is also a question about Nix for next season, though he has rebounded from a broken ankle before. Payton said that Nix said he had the injury in high school, and he broke his ankle during the 2021 season as well when he was at Auburn.
“I said, ‘I didn’t realize that. If I would have known that I wouldn’t have drafted you,’” Payton said, making a joke in a discouraging moment for the Broncos. “He’s a tough cookie.”
Nix returned in 2022 at Oregon after the ankle injury and threw for 3,593 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Teams deal with injuries all the time. Rarely is it a season-ending injury to a quarterback right before a conference championship game. The Broncos will be ready. And if they can overcome Nix’s injury, it will be quite a story.
