Questions About Bo Nix’s Ankle Continue to Multiply

The Denver Broncos aren’t getting good quarterback play right now, and it’s threatening to ruin what started out to be a potential championship season. It’s all about Bo Nix right now, and questions about his surgically-repaired broken ankle are starting to be a growing part of the picture, according to the latest mailbag from Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post. 

Indeed, it’s somewhat amazing about how quickly the questions about this are multiplying. Fans were more than willing to give Nix and the Broncos the benefit of the doubt for the first two or three games, but now it’s becoming so obvious that Nix is physically compromised that it’s close to impossible to stop the questions. 

Gabriel offered a complete rundown on this that was somewhat helpful. The first hint that something was up happened during an earlier game when a sideline report surfaced that Nix gets some swelling and stiffness in his ankle after flights and periods of high activity. Nix flatly denied that this was affecting him when he was asked about it during the interview. 

No matter. The numbers tell an ugly story, and the only major difference between Nix’s numbers this season vs. last year is the ankle. 

To be fair, Gabriel pointed out that Nix is still difficult to sack. His sack rate is only slightly higher than last year’s number, which was 3.47 percent last year per the writer. But Nix hasn’t been making plays outside the pocket, and he hasn’t been running much, either. 

Part of the reason for the low sack number is the messaging of coach Sean Payton, who constantly emphasizes not taking sacks or turning the ball over, especially now that he’s back calling plays.

Nix has said the GPS numbers that measure his speed are good in practice, but those are basically meaningless. It’s fine to say that Nix has hit 15 mph in practice on 22 of his carries while a running back like RJ Harvey has only hit that number once, but under game conditions the quarterback is obviously making more decisions to protect himself rather than get as much yardage as possible. 

Payton’s latest reponse to all this has been to talk about the training room. He talked around the issue of Nix having a mental hurdle to clear in his recovery when he was asked about that, per Gabriel, focusing on the science behind the physical evaluations. But that doesn’t mean the issue will go away, nor does it mean the questions won’t continue to grow.