Preliminary Report: Broncos Considering Bo Nix Deal: Could Future Cheerleading Be in a New Venue?
Sean Payton said Bo Nix has done a 'pretty good job' protecting himself, but should the Broncos scale back the QB's running in 2026?
Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix refuses to say his ankles are prone to injury. Perhaps he's right — it's possible that his various ankle injuries were fluky and unrelated to previous injuries, but Denver's staff should still proceed with caution. After rushing 92 times for 430 yards and four scores on the ground as a rookie, Nix's rushing workload was slightly scaled back to 83 carries for 356 yards and five touchdowns in 2025.
That nine-carry difference is likely negligible, as most of Nix's runs seemingly came on opportunistic scrambles, not designed runs. Sean Payton's playbook does include designed QB runs, though, and Nix broke his ankle in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs on a designed run against the Buffalo Bills . So, will the Broncos instruct Nix to protect himself more in 2026?
"[H]e'll rehab his tail off and get ready and get back to being healthy," Payton said in January. "I think for someone who runs with the ball, I think he's done a pretty good job of protecting himself, not all the time, but for the most part, he's done a pretty good job of sliding and understanding playing for another day. ” Admittedly, the incident that broke Nix's ankle seemed to be pretty fluky, and the injury did not appear to be the direct result of taking a hard hit on a designed run.
Still, the more carries a player has, the more chances there are for injury. Nix has averaged just over 87 runs per season through his first two years in the NFL. We'll see if that trend continues in Year 3.