During the Denver Broncos' bye week, head coach Sean Payton has no obligation meet with the press or make any media appearances.
He went out of his way to put out a resounding vote of confidence in quarterback Bo Nix, anyway.
Payton made an appearance on The Herd with his old pal Colin Cowherd, and he could have just offered the usual coachspeak about his quarterback. He could have said all of the cliché things. Instead, he doubled down on his confidence in Nix, which he made very clear -- has never wavered.
Payton's voluntary vote of confidence in Nix is going to be critical for this Denver Broncos team going on a Super Bowl run in 2026.
Sean Payton gives Broncos QB Bo Nix a massive vote of confidence during the bye
"I know we have the right quarterback in the building."@colincowherd & @Broncos head coach @SeanPayton talk Bo Nix pic.twitter.com/1XcRFvSMGT
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 11, 2026
"I know we have the right quarterback in the building. In other words, I've just seen it. I've seen the behavior, the things that you need in clutch moments, the arm strength...
...The quarterback thing, he's going to be outstanding."
- Sean Payton (via The Herd with Colin Cowherd)
Payton then went on to talk about the "gauntlet" of defenses the Broncos have faced in the first half of the season, and that he's spoken to Nix about coming out the other side of that.
When the schedule was released, everybody in the NFL world was saying the same thing: The Broncos will be lucky to make it out of the first six games alive.
When the Broncos were going through that gauntlet of a schedule, and Nix was making the plays needed to win (while simultaneously not looking impressive statistically), he was given absolutely no credit for helping his team.
Whether or not he would admit it, it does seem like Nix let the noise get to him a little bit. He was hearing question after question about his ankle, about the mental hurdles of coming back from the injury, and about why he was not attacking the football downfield and hunting for big plays.
Nix himself expressed confusion at some of what was going on. He admitted to the fact that there were mental hurdles after the ankle injury in the playoffs.
Although his play wasn't an A+ across the board through the first half of the season, the signs were there heading into the bye that Nix had turned a proverbial corner. And the fact that Sean Payton went on the media to talk this positively about him indicates that he knows Nix has turned that corner.
We may not be talking about a big-money contract for Nix right now, but can we talk Super Bowl?
We absolutely can talk Super Bowl.
That's the type of confidence Payton has in Nix. He knows he can win a Super Bowl with him. The future will take care of itself.
Payton going out of his way to go on a national show like Cowherd's and make the statements he did about his quarterback further proves how much he believes in this team, and in No. 10.
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