Broncos officially place Bo Nix on injured reserve

There was no real hope Bo Nix was going to return for the season.

Broncos coach Sean Payton announced last Saturday that Nix was lost for the year due to the ankle fracture he suffered in overtime of last Saturday’s win over the Buffalo Bills, and Nix underwent the subsequent surgery, as expected, in Birmingham, Ala. three days later.

Still, in some circles there was a persistent thought that somehow, Nix could make a miraculous return in time for Super Bowl LX, with the Broncos’ decision to not place Nix on injured reserve cited as evidence.

But the decision to wait to place Nix on injured reserve is actually fairly standard operating procedure in the Sean Payton era, as the team more often than not waits until the following Saturday — or a Thursday on a Thursday Night Football week — to make such moves, doing so with a corresponding roster move that fills the vacancy.

Prior to this week, 12 of the 19 players placed on injured reserve by the Broncos in the last three seasons went on IR in this manner.

And so it will be for Nix, who officially went on injured reserve Saturday, with his roster spot going to center Luke Wattenberg. Wattenberg practiced all three days this week and is expected to start Sunday after a four-week stint on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury suffered in the Dec. 21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

BRONCOS ATTEMPTING TO DO SOMETHING NO TEAM HAS EVER DONE

And that is to win a Super Bowl with a quarterback who didn’t start a game for them in that regular season — or the previous two regular seasons, for that matter.

In fact, no team has ever played a conference-championship game starting a quarterback who had not thrown a pass in the season to that point. Nick Foles and Jeff Hostetler stepped into the starting lineups for the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles and 1990 New York Giants with three and two games remaining in their respective regular seasons.

So, Jarrett Stidham will start trying to make NFL history for the Broncos on Sunday.

And now it’s official that Nix will be left to watch and wait until next season.

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