How concerned should Broncos be with Nix’s ankle?
Mike Florio and Michael Holley discuss Bo Nix's ankle injury and dive into Sean Payton's comments regarding the quarterback's recovery.
Video Transcript
Tuesday edition of PFT Live.
It is May the 12th.
The Denver Broncos lost their starting quarterback unexpectedly late in the playoff win over the Buffalo Bills.
We found out, and there was a vague tweet from Tracy Wolfson about it looked like Bo Nix got hurt on one of the later plays.
We need to keep an eye on it.
The next thing you know, Sean Payton's telling the world he's got a broken ankle.
Jarrett Stidham ends up starting the AFC Championship game against the Patriots.
The Broncos only lost that game by three points.
And throughout the off-season, we've heard he'll be fine, he'll be fine, he'll be good to go for OTAs.
He had his procedure.
It's no big deal.
It's no big deal.
And then a couple of weeks ago, oh, second procedure.
So now there's some uncertainty as to when he's gonna be available during the off-season program.
They've yet to suggest there'd be any impediment.
Sean Payton said the other day, and you're gonna hear from him in a second, he's not gonna be put on the physically unable to perform list.
He'll be good to go for training camp.
But there is that question.
There is that question as to when he'll be healthy and how much work is he gonna miss, because we know that the building blocks for the coming season are put in place in the off-season program.
There's installation of whatever changes to the game plan or the playbook.
Whatever things you're gonna do differently, this is the time to go out there and get work.
You have Jalen Waddell there.
This is an opportunity to get in some work from him.
So anything you miss, I mean, there isn't a clear bright line from the off-season program to the regular season, but everything you miss does make it harder to get to the level of comfort you would have if you were available.
So I think it's something worth keeping an eye on, especially with a fairly big game set for week one, Broncos and the Chiefs, location TBD.
And, and another big part of this, Mike, is what happens when quarterbacks get new toys and get new receivers.
They wanna work with them.
Sometimes, they'll call them to they whether it's their hometown or some, great location you can hang out with the guys, you can hang out with your skill players and develop chemistry.
Well, they pick- they picked up Jalen Waddell, and what would Bo- I, I think Bo Nix would love to work with Jalen Waddell.
Hey, I got a new receiver, so I got Mims, I got Waddell, and see how it works here and develop some chemistry.
So anything, any extra time that you can get is valuable.
You certainly don't want, Jarrett Stidham developing chemistry with Jalen Waddell.
And, look, it, it seems unlikely based on what we saw from Stidham in the AFC Championship game.
Looked like he was not ready to be a starting quarterback, at that level.
He's a nice little backup, but if they had Bo Nix, they'd probably win that game, and the way the, the game played out.
but you certainly, if you're a starting quarterback, you don't want your backup to develop chemistry with your number one wide receiver before you do.
So that's, that I think there's some urgency there as well.
Here's Sean Payton from over the weekend at the Broncos rookie mini camp on Bo Nix's recovery process.
He'll be well ahead of time for training camp.
I think there's a good chance we see him in this off-season program in June.
We're gonna be the ones kinda holding him back, if you will.
We feel real good about where he's at.
and you guys will have a chance to see it, you know, here in a few weeks.
But clearly, full speed by training camp.
We just, we just wanna be smart relative to, holding him back a little.
Look, that's a far cry from it's no big deal, nothing to see here, everything's fine.
Right.
They said the second procedure wasn't a surprise, but there's no requirement to disclose injuries.
There's no injury report that applies until week one.
They don't have to tell us anything.
Sean Payton, like many coaches, notoriously close to the vest- Mm-hmm on what he says, trying to set the right expectations.
But the reality is there's still an issue.
He's not healthy.
He's still recovering, and he's had this second procedure.
So we just always assume, 'cause we always hear, surgery's a success and he's already ahead of schedule.
And I know part of it is they're professional athletes and they heal from these procedures more quickly than the normal human being does.
But it doesn't mean it's 100% that everything's fine.
We still need to keep an eye on it.
If I'm a Broncos fan, you know, I, I try to put myself in the shoes of the various fan bases.
Like, what would I be worried about if I'm a Steelers fan?
What would I be worried about- Right if I'm a Cowboys fan?
If I'm a Broncos fan, I'm worried that Bo Nix may have some issue that- Sure causes him to miss summer camp, and- Yeah I won't believe he's fine until I see him and I come to the conclusion with my own eyes he's fine.
Look, we don't know the details, but if you just go back to some of the areas See, I, I'm always amazed by this.
I'm always amazed by what gets professional athletes, what gets certain guys upset.
It's not always what you would think.
Like, so a lot of them are used to criticism about the way they play.
you know, "You should have made that pass," or, you know, you know, "You overthrew that guy, you under threw that guy."
For a quarterback, that doesn't always upset them.
What upsets professional ath- a lot of professional athletes, what's triggering, is any kind of conversation about injuries.
So think back, Mike, when Sean Payton came out and he gave his analysis of Bo Nix's injury, and well, how did Bo Nix respond?
He wasn't happy.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, wait a minute, he shouldn't have said that.
That's not No, I, I disagree with that.
He said he had a predisposition.
Yes.
And had broken it before or something like that.
See?
Yeah.
And so they, they weren't on the same page there.
Nix was unhappy with the way Payton described his injury.
Now Payton is being, you know, he's very, very upbeat about this, about this injury.
But it was a second procedure, and Nix responded that way for a reason.
So I It would.
I, I agree with you.
If, if you're a Broncos fan, you, you're trying to figure out, "Okay, what's going on here?"
You're not gonna get it You're not gonna get the real answer from Bo Nix.
You're not gonna get the real answer from Sean Payton.
So you just take what you know, and you just hope, because, you know, something, something's a little bit off.Here's the article.
This is January 28.
Nick's met with reporters the first time since having surgery.
There was nothing predisposed about the ankle.
Something might have gotten confused in how Sean Payton recounted what the doctors had said about the condition- Yep of the ankle.
So yeah, that becomes a point of pride.
Durability, he said that.
"With the durability, it's been about, I'd say, four years, probably over 60 games straight of me getting to play and not missing games."
So he doesn't want to be labeled as injury-prone.
He doesn't want to have that cloud hanging over him.
I think at a certain level, it's almost superstition.
My dad was superstitious of everything.
I mean, don't even talk about it.
Don't even breathe it.
Like, because football players know, especially at that level- Oh, yeah with the speed, the size, the strength of the players, any play can be the play that knocks you out for the rest of the year, and it can happen on some fluky, dumb little thing like it happened to Nick.
Like, nobody even knew he got hurt.
Especially And, and for quarterbacks too.
So football players are If you're a lineman, it happens to you, you're out, there are five linemen out there.
You're one of five.
Okay, you're out, you're coming back.
A quarterback is one guy.
It's one guy who gets to play, and in all of them, all of them.
I mean, like Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback I've ever seen, Tom Brady did not like to give up snaps to his backup, even in blowouts.
He was very hesitant to come out of games because there's just this thought in the back of your head, "Wait a minute."
He knew what he thought when he was the backup.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Give me a chance, and I'll take that guy's job.
Hey, give me And, and that's exactly what he said.
When he was a fourth-string quarterback, as a rookie in 2000, and he used to work out with, a guy from Harvard named Dave Eismann.
So Dave Eismann, I think a- as, w- was probably drafted just before Brady or just after.
He used to tell Eismann, "Hey, I'm gonna take Bledsoe's job."
This is a fourth-string quarterback.
So you know, Drew Bledsoe had just signed a, you know, $100 million contract, franchise quarterback, franchise icon already at that point, and here's this fourth round, his fourth quarterback, sixth-round pick saying, "I'm gonna take his job."
So I think that's, that kind of lingers in the mind of, of most starting quarterbacks.
Yeah, and just don't even go there.
Don't put that out there into the universe.
I'm fine.
I'm not injury-prone.
Injuries happen.
And that's a reality.
Some injuries are just bad luck.
Some injuries are an example of a guy that, for whatever reason, like every body is created differently.
When you look at a guy like Emmitt Smith and the abuse that he took and his ability to play through anything and everything, some guys are just wired in a way that they can take that pounding that happens at the NFL level and keep going.
Now they may pay the price for it later, but in the moment, they can keep going.
Marshawn Lynch, I remember when he was playing, like there, there was a game against Chiefs, I think, where he's just like laid on the table at halftime.
He didn't even go into the locker room.
He'd had You know, he couldn't move, and he was able to keep playing.
Like, so it, it's a real thing.
And with Bo Nix to have his second season capped by this, this injury that was like, what?
Yeah.
He's injured?
It's, it's, it's gonna create some tension, and if you're a Broncos fan, when everything's going great, and had a 99.5% season ticket renewal rate, franchise record, arrows pointing up.
They're gonna have a bunch of primetime games.
They were the number one seed last year.
They're returning everyone.
They've added Jalen Wadde.
Vance Joseph didn't get a head coaching job.
Some would say he should have.
Didn't get the kind of consideration that would result in him leaving, so- He kept him in that game so- Hi- his defense kept him in that, conference championship game and, and when you've got a head coach- Yeah who is completely locked in on the offense, you need a defensive coordinator that you can trust to take care of that side of the ball, and Sean Payton kept his guy.
It's all pointing to the Broncos potentially being very good.
The question is, who's gonna be the quarterback if Bo Nix, for some reason, either And hey, I, I don't think I know that there are times where coaches will tell us something other than the truth for strategic reasons.
Yeah.
They have to.
There are must lie situations that come up.
I don't see any benefit to Sean Payton to saying that Bo Nix will clearly be good to go before training camp if he has any inkling that he's not.
Because that makes Nix- Yeah, it makes it- That makes Nix look bad they put him in a position to look bad.
You're writing a check that that guy- Right may not be able to honor.
And it just, it adds more tension to the relationship.
Now, I, I, I try to keep up with, most free agent moves, off-season moves.
Did the Broncos add another quarterback?
They have.
Or they just have Stidham?
They have.
Well, what they did- Or- They have three quarterbacks on the roster.
I'm gonna check the depth chart right now.
Ourlads.com, by the way, they've got great up-to-date depth charts for all teams.
They, they are thinking about adding one for the off-season program to the extent that- Yeah Nix isn't available, and they really like Kurt Warner's son, EJ.
He was there on a tryout basis over the weekend, as was Nathan Peterman, blast from the past.
Okay.
So they could add somebody else.
Right now, their quarterbacks are Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham, and Sam Ehlinger.
Okay.
So, now- Whose claim to fame is when he was a little boy, he aspired to be Chris Simms.
There's a video that they play like in a college game.
Oh, is that right?
"I'm Chris Simms," when he was like two years old running around in his Longhorn jersey.
So those are the three they have on the roster.
Well, they, so- And a lot of teams like to have four when we get to camp they didn't, they didn't upgrade.
I, I'm thinking, th- so they didn't upgrade the backup spot- Right is which w- which is what I was getting at, so- And they love Stidham.
They lo- they, they love Stidham.
Yeah.
Yeah, they love Stidham, but, I saw You saw Stidham.
I saw Stidham, in the AFC Championship game, and that And we've seen A- and, and, and I'm not being unfair here because we've seen backups in playoff games deliver, and maybe they deliver for a little bit, and they, and then they kind of go back to what they are.
But we've seen- Nick Foles backups deliver championship performances, and he looked like the m- it looked like the moment was way too big for him, and that was before the snowstorm, the surprise snowstorm ha- happened in the second half, so These teams fall in love with players at practice, but practice for a quarterback especially is fundamentally different from a game.
You got the red jersey on.
You don't have to worry about getting hit.
You take away that fear of getting just planted into the dirt by a 275-pound pass rusher.
You know, all they're gonna do is touch your jersey.
You take that out of the equation, it frees you up a little bit.
When you throw that in there as a very real risk, that, that can, that can alter the mindset and then the performance of the quarterback.
There have been plenty of guys, young guys that, oh, they love Max Brosmer of the Vikings.
Oh, they love him.
They love him.
Oh, they love him.
They love him.
They love him at practice.
They love him.
They love him.
And he played against the Seahawks, and they lost 26-0.
He had that horrible play where he just kind of handed the ball over to the Seahawks defender who took it to the house, and it's like, you just There is a huge aper- Right for the quarterback especially, the difference between practice and real game is dramatic, and we find out when they go play.
Yeah, some guys know how to They, they know all the stuff.
"Hey, go on the board and tell us what their defense is doing."
"Okay, I got it."
"And what do we do in this situation?"
You know, and a lot of coaches give quizzes.
"All right, when they're in cover three, now what are we gonna do, and what are our checks?"
"Okay, I got it, got it."
Then the game starts.
"Whoa, why'd you freeze like that?"
"Oh, okay."
Yeah.
'Cause I'm not on the board anymore.
Yeah.
When the light goes on- I'm not in the facility and it's all real- I'm on the field and there are consequences, and it's time- Yeah it's a different vibe than being on the practice field.
