Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton gave another update about when Bo Nix will be on the field, but it's still unclear.
Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton provided another update on the state of Bo Nix’s rehab as the quarterback continues to recover from his broken ankle, and the timeline for real football action keeps getting extended, according to a report by Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post.
If you’ve been following this story, you already know that Nix’s rehab situation has been in flux. The Broncos originally declared that he’d be ready for OTA, but now Payton says they’re going to be “smart” with their third-year quarterback after a second operation was necessary that was a surprise to nearly all of us.
“We’re going to be the ones kind of holding him back, if you will,” Payton said. “The follow-up procedure was not a surprise. I was just talking to (vice president of player health and performance Beau Lowery), we had five other players that had staged surgeries where there’s a step, they evaluate and then there’s a second step. He was the sixth that actually went through that. No surprises. We feel real good about where he’s at. You guys will have a chance to see that here in a few weeks.
“Clearly full speed by training camp. We just want to be smart relative to holding him back a little.”
Whether that’s actually true or not remains to be sen. Payton has been downplaying this situation for months now, and it was only during Broncos rookie minicamp over the weekend he added the concept of “staging” to his comments.
That's fine with other players, but he’s the franchise quarterback, and if he’s not on the field at full strength in September, the odds are the Broncos are doing nowhere. Payton wouldn’t discuss the details of the second procedure, and he sounded more than a little defensive about it, which is somewhat understandable given that he’s been playing defense in this situation for months now.
“I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “None of you guys know specifically what that means and I probably don’t either.”
The one new specific Payton did offer was about Denver’s mandatory minicamp, which runs from June 16-18, according to Gabriel.
“You knows know from watching, (OTA and minicamp) kind of look the same and the only difference is in the minicamp the meeting time can be a little longer on the field, but it’s the same tempo,” Payton said. “He’s going to want to push that earlier. I’m probably — we’ll be smart with Bo. The trainers and the doctors.
“I’m sure you’ll see him. Probably in minicamp maybe. But he’ll be full speed and throwing and everything in July before we get back here.”
Payton also denied any miscommunication with Nix, which was clearly the case back in January when the coach said the quarterback was “predisposed” to the injury and Nix was shut down after he expressed his displeasure with that.
“He and I have been on the same page,” Payton said. “None of that’s been an issue. He laughs (about it).”