The Denver Broncos emphasised their right to the top seed in the AFC playoffs by beating the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night, but saw their chances of making the Super Bowl take a massive hit after quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending injury.

The second-year QB suffered a fracture in his right ankle late on the penultimate play of overtime, shortly before kicker Wil Lutz drilled the deciding field goal to break Buffalo hearts after they had battled back from a second half deficit to lead into the closing stages of the fourth quarter. Prior to his late game heroics, Nix had become only the second quarterback in Broncos history, alongside John Elway, to throw three touchdown passes in a postseason win.

Nix will now undergo season-ending surgery on Tuesday, according to head coach Sean Payton, who has already named Jarrett Stidham as starter for the AFC Championship game this coming weekend.

“[Bo]’s a tough cookie,” Payton said of his QB1, who had yet to miss a game through injury in his two-year NFL career. “This team, all year, has lost key players. We’ll rise up for the next challenge, and we’ll go from there.”

Payton says he tried to boost Nix’s spirits by telling him that he was ‘the second quarterback to take your team to a championship game in Year 2 — and the first is [Patrick] Mahomes’, but insists that Stidham, to this point a journeyman in the NFL, is ready and able to continue the Broncos return to prominence and land a place in Super Bowl LX. The recently-acquired Sam Ehlinger will serve as backup.

“I would say this, in fairness to what you’ve seen — which is very limited — Stiddy’s ready,” Payton claimed. “I said this at the beginning of the season, but I feel like I’ve got a [QB2] that’s capable of starting for a number of teams — and I know he feels the same way. Watch out. Just watch.”

Stidham has started just four games in a pro career that saw him drafted by New England before spending a year with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022. His starts are split between Vegas and Denver, the last of which saw him earn a win, albeit bck in 2023. His last meaningful action came in the 2025 preseason.