The Denver Broncos are going to play in the AFC Championship Game next Sunday, but suddenly, things have taken a drastic turn.
If you heard that collective stressful exhale on Saturday evening, it was all of Broncos Country hearing the announcement that Bo Nix is done for the season. The Broncos quarterback broke a bone in his ankle on the second-to-last play against the Buffalo Bills and will miss the rest of this season.
It's crushing news for a team that hasn't had to play without Nix since he was taken in the first round of the 2024 draft. Now, the team will have to turn to Jarrett Stidham, who hasn't started a game since 2023.
It's all over for the Broncos, right? There will be many fans calling Sunday's game between the Houston Texans and New England Patriots — two teams with tough defenses — the "real" AFC Championship Game. But they shouldn't sell Stidham short.
Stidham is a solid backup quarterback, one who Sean Payton is quite comfortable with due to his knowledge of his scheme. Ahead of the 2023 season, the Broncos signed him to a two-year, $10 million contract, a great deal for a backup. When he became a free agent this past spring, the team wasted no time in signing him to another two-year deal, this one worth $12 million.
Stidham was drafted in the fourth round in 2019 by the New England Patriots. There, he sat behind Tom Brady, learning from the best quarterback in NFL history. He has sat in all of the quarterback meetings with Nix over the course of the last two seasons and he has been an important piece in helping him prepare for games.
It's not an ideal situation for the Broncos, far from it, in fact. But Stidham is the kind of guy who is going to be ready when his number is called. His number has been called, and Payton will have him ready to play.
Much will be made of him having to go up against a stingy defense, but you don't have to look back too far in history to conjure up memories of the Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl with Nick Foles filling in for an injured Carson Wentz.
Broncos Country should not be hanging their heads and feeling like this task is now impossible. Good coaches and good organizations can navigate something like this successfully, and the Broncos are going to get their chance to do just that.
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