The New England Patriots’ biggest critics have been screaming all season long about their historically easy road to the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.
And if the Patriots are able to win Sunday’s showdown with the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium to reach the AFC Championship Game, the focal point of the next week just got painfully obvious.
What started as a great day for the NFL — with the Denver Broncos outlasting the Buffalo Bills, 33-30, in a tense, back-and-forth, overtime thriller — took a stunning turn for the worse when Sean Payton hit the postgame podium. Broncos fans were still celebrating when Payton broke the news that starting quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury on one of their team's final plays of the game, and is out for the remainder of the playoffs.
On the second to last play of overtime, Broncos QB Bo Nix fractured a bone in his right ankle. He is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama. “We felt it was best to tell everyone now,” Broncos HC Sean Payton said.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 18, 2026
The Patriots now enter Sunday’s matchup knowing that they must go through Denver — and not Josh Allen — to reach the Super Bowl. But if they do earn their trip to Mile High, the QB matchup will be Drake Maye vs. Broncos backup Jarrett Stidham, a failed fourth-round draft pick of New England back in 2019.
The Patriots’ critics won’t handle what just happened to their playoff path
Again, this was a bad result for the NFL, and especially football fans in Denver and beyond. The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and no one wants to see them fight on for a Super Berth next week without Nix on the field.
This is also a gut-punch for Patriots fans, who’ve been listening to talk about “The Schedule” all year and have been eager to see their team go out and prove it in January.
There’s no fighting this one, though. After battering Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers into submission on wild-card weekend, the Patriots will now have to beat C.J. Stroud and Stidham to reach Super Bowl LX.
Pretty easy to see in Super Bowl Champ prediction market when the Broncos beat the Bills and 45 mins later when it was announced that Bo Nix was done for the season.
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) January 18, 2026
Kickoff at 4:30, Broncos listed at .12
Broncos win at 8:15pm listed at .21
Nix injury news at 9:15, drops to .6 pic.twitter.com/k2ONojByXw
Stidham has only taken four snaps this season, and they were all back in Week 8 in an end-of-game, knee-down situation. He was drafted by the Patriots during the Bill Belichick regime but only lasted two seasons, with Belichick trading him to the Raiders in 2022 in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick.
Payton actually made Stidham a priority during his first free agency as head coach of the Broncos, signing him in 2023 to a two-year, $10 million contract as the backup to Russell Wilson. Stidham signed a two-year extension this year with about $7 million in guarantees, and Payton’s about to find out if the emergency QB he wanted behind Nix has what it takes to keep this year's run alive.
Even with a full week to prepare, Stidham sends the Broncos from the clear AFC favorites, to underdogs. The skeptics are about to have a field day, but if Mike Vrabel and company can win what will now be their final home game of the 2025-26 season, the Patriots will officially be on destiny watch with a much more favorable trip to Denver on deck.