- NFL. Get the best seats for NFL games at Tickets MARCA
- Buffalo Bills. The Denver Broncos find Josh Allen's kryptonite, who once again falls short
- Denver Broncos. Buffalo Bills vs Denver Broncos : Score, best plays and key moments from the game - NFL 2025/26
The Denver Broncos received the worst possible news. Quarterback Bo Nix is out for the rest of the season with an injury. In the midst of their second playoff run in 10 years, the team had no choice but to turn to backup Jarrett Stidham for the AFC Championship Game.
The announcement came as a crushing blow to a city still celebrating a thrilling 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills. Broncos head coach Sean Payton returned to the media room long after the game to deliver the news: starting quarterback Bo Nix broke a bone in his ankle on the second-to-last play of the contest.
Nix, who steered the Broncos to a dominant 14-3 regular season record, will undergo season-ending surgery this Tuesday. The loss of the second-year sensation, who threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns against Buffalo, sent immediate shockwaves through the sports world.
According to BetMGM, the Broncos' Super Bowl odds plummeted from +325 to +900 following the injury update. Now, it will be up to Stidham to prove the experts wrong.
Who is Jarrett Stidham, Bo Nix's backup?
A fourth-round selection by the New England Patriots in the 2019 NFL Draft, Stidham spent three seasons learning under the legendary system in Foxborough before a one-year stop with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Since joining the Denver Broncos in 2023, he has been the team's primary insurance policy-a policy the Broncos are now forced to cash in at the most critical moment of their season.
Across his seven seasons in the league, Stidham has appeared in 20 games with four starts, accumulating 1,422 passing yards, eight touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
While he hasn't thrown a competitive pass in either of the last two seasons, the 29-year-old now finds himself as the man standing between Denver and a Super Bowl berth.
"Just Watch": Payton backs his backup
Despite the grim diagnosis for Nix, Sean Payton remained defiant regarding the team's postseason prospects. He emphasized that the decision to announce the news so quickly was due to the "impossible" nature of keeping such a significant injury quiet until the team could meet on Monday.
The Broncos are currently enjoying their deepest playoff run since the 2015 season, but the path has suddenly become much steeper. Stidham's task is monumental: he must step into an offense that has relied on Nix's mobility and accuracy to navigate the AFC Championship and potentially the Super Bowl.
"They'll be disappointed," Payton said of his players. "There will be a lot of emotions. Then the refocus takes place."
For Stidham, the refocus begins immediately. With zero pass attempts over the last two years, he must now find his rhythm in a matter of days before taking the field for the biggest start of his professional career.