A handful of weeks ago, Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix popped up on the injury report with a back injury, but there was seemingly never really any concern that he would miss any time at all because of it. Nix was hurt against the Las Vegas Raiders when the Broncos traveled to Vegas in late November just before Thanksgiving, and you could see him getting treatment on his back during the game and clearly in discomfort.
But Nix didn't miss a single snap against the Raiders, nor did he miss the next game, a Monday Night Football matchup against the Cleveland Browns, which came just before the Broncos' seemingly well-timed but extremely late bye week.
At the time, nobody really thought anything of it. Nix's time on the injury report came and went. As it turns out, he was dealing with something a lot more severe than anyone anticipated. Nix revealed at his press availability after the playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills that he suffered "three process fractures" in his back.
And in typical Bo Nix fashion, he kind of just tried to blow it off.
"A lot of guys play with a lot of those kinds of things," Nix stated (via team PR).
Bo Nix played part of his rookie season with three process fractures in his back
“It was a long 18-, 19-week season. Fortunately, God was good to me this year. He allowed me to stay upright. I was healthy. I got to play each and every game. Obviously we all play with some bruises and some cuts and scrapes. The Vegas week I had a little transverse process fracture in my back. That week [I] got treatment and made it through to that week. Monday Night Football was a stretch where we were all kind of banged up. I wasn’t going to miss the first Monday night game. I got treatment on it, and then we were fortunate to have an off week that next week. It kind of went away after that. It was annoying, but we all play with annoying.”
- Bo Nix (via Broncos PR)
This is exactly the type of thing you would expect Nix to say. He's a tough dude and he doesn't make excuses. Not even when he's got a fractured back.
To be a starting quarterback in the NFL would bring stresses all on its own, but to add having transverse process fractures in your back would be at least a little distracting. And we saw Nix stare down a Raiders defender in that same game, telling him, "I don't fear nothing," before helping the Broncos finish out a win and sweep of the Raiders for the first time since the Peyton Manning era.
Bo Nix did all of this with 3 back fractures: pic.twitter.com/FnREG16W0b
— RG 📷 (@RyanGreeneDNVR) January 13, 2025
And with that extra day of rest, we saw Nix go out against Cleveland and make some huge plays, including the deep ball to Marvin Mims on 3rd-and-long with the Broncos basically in their own end zone.
Nix is just an extremely impressive young player. The Broncos are lucky to have him and he feels like the perfect player to be bringing this franchise back to prominence. He's coming off of the best rookie season in Broncos franchise history for a quarterback and it feels like it's only a matter of time before he takes the "only QB ever drafted by the Broncos to win a playoff game" from Tim Tebow.