The Denver Broncos were able to win 14 regular season games during the 2025 NFL Season, securing the AFC West title for the first time since 2015, and also securing the No. 1 playoff seed for the first time since the Super Bowl 50 season. At the time, everything seemed to be adding up perfectly for the Broncos to enjoy another championship 10 years after their last one.
After getting past the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round in a dramatic, back-and-forth game, the NFL world was shocked to the core, especially Broncos fans, when news broke that quarterback Bo Nix had broken his ankle and would miss the rest of the season.
Denver would go on to put up a great fight against the New England Patriots, but ultimately fell short, losing by three points. Broncos Country could probably only just imagine what the mood must have been like in the facility when that news broke, but we were just given an inside look, and it went about as you would expect.
Denver Broncos' fans will love (and hate) how the team reacted to the Bo Nix broken ankle news
In one of the more thorough stories you'll ever see regarding the Broncos, written by ESPN's Seth Wickersham, he takes us through the Broncos playoff experience during the 2025 season, and the few minutes leading up to the tragic news that Nix broke his ankle are almost too 'TV script' to believe:
"Just then, Beau Lowery, the team's vice president of player health and performance, enters -- as he does after every game. Payton keeps explaining Rutgers Special. Lowery looks oddly solemn. The whooping and music from the locker room seems louder. Lowery holds a scrap of paper with a list of injuries on it. Guys on the other side of these walls are dressed after showering, hugging their families, and heading out for the night. Lowery rattles off a few notes, then inhales."
'Bo... ' Lowery says
'Bo?' [Sean] Payton says.
'Bo fractured his ankle and will have surgery Tuesday.'
Payton's eyes widen.
'His season is over,' Lowery says.
Everyone in the office looks nauseous. The thumping and cheering seems to fade. The room's dimensions seem to shift, at once spinning and still. Payton stares at the floor, eyes dead, head slowly nodding.
'Stiddy,' he [Payton] says...
'It'll be perfect,' he says.
It's just - wow.
As people who watch the game and are clearly on the outside looking it, we simply have no idea just how much time and effort goes into preparation for just one game. Those 'throwaway' 1 PM EST games in the middle of the season with two losing teams may not seem like much to the average fan, but for the players, coaches, and everyone in between, it's their livelihoods.
And the stakes are exponentially higher when the playoffs roll around. Wickersham was able to capture the precise mood of the room when Beau Lowery gave the injury news to Payton. After that, Payton got up in front of the media and broke the news to the football world, clearly wanting to do so before social media caught on.
This is both sad and quite interesting at the same time, as this exclusive look isn't something that every teams' fanbase gets, but the way that Payton and the others around him reacted is obviously appropriate given the situation at the time.
The Broncos did put up quite the fight in the AFC Championship Game, but a second-half snowstorm really put a dagger into the team's chances, and it's not at all controversial to say that had Nix been healthy for that game, Denver wins and at least puts up a good fight in the Super Bowl.
Add us as a preferred source on Google