Broncos turn to Stidham at QB after Bo Nix injury
SkimNews Take
Payton's 15-day run masks how thin Denver's margin is — a single injury converted a Super Bowl contender into a third-string-QB bet, exposing depth as the real playoff currency.
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Bo Nix suffered a right ankle injury on the third-to-last play of Denver's overtime divisional-round win over the Buffalo Bills, leaving Sean Payton without his starting quarterback six days before the AFC Championship.
- Jarrett Stidham, a 2019 fourth-round pick now on his third team in six years with four career starts and 197 career passes, will start against the New England Patriots — and would be the first QB ever to start a conference championship game without a single regular-season attempt that year.
- No coach in modern NFL history has lost his starting quarterback the game before the Super Bowl, the source notes, framing the depth of Denver's predicament.
- Payton rattled off his track record with backup QBs — Bridgewater, Taysom Hill, Winston, Siemian — and pointed to a 5-0 Saints stretch in 2019 after Drew Brees tore a ligament in his right thumb, writing the names in bold Sharpie on a legal pad.
- Payton opened a coaches' meeting by savaging the decision to activate practice squad lineman Jordan Jackson and then not play him a single defensive snap against Buffalo, calling it "f---ing criminal" in a room where the thermostat sits at a self-set 68 degrees.
- Despite the Broncos forcing five turnovers against the Bills, Payton told staff the defense was "worse than the worst defensive team this year in the NFL" outside of takeaways, and blasted a "12 on the field" penalty that cost a timeout.
Why it matters: The AFC's No. 1 seed, one win from a Super Bowl, now hands the ball to a quarterback with 197 career passes — the most dramatic drop-off at the position any team has faced in a conference championship game, per the source. Payton is betting his 18th year as a head coach on a philosophy he's tested before with Brees, Bridgewater, Hill, Winston, and Siemian, but never with the Super Bowl this close.
Ask SkimNews
