Bo Nix is ‘more than ahead of schedule’ for the Broncos

Bo Nix is back in uniform. And if you ask him, he could play for the Denver Broncos right now.

Tuesday marked the franchise quarterback’s first practice with his teammates since fracturing his ankle in January’s divisional-round overtime win over Buffalo — an injury that may have cost the Broncos a trip to the Super Bowl, required two offseason procedures and had Colorado sweating his timeline all spring.

“I could go full go right now if they wanted to,” Nix said.

The Broncos aren’t going there yet. Nix handled walkthrough reps with the first group, individual work and mental reps throughout, sitting out the team periods. But Sean Payton made clear that the team is just being cautious.

“There were certain things he didn’t do in the team periods, but a lot of what he did in the individual, he’s doing well, he’s doing really well,” Payton said. “He’ll clearly be ready in time for training camp. I think he’s going to be full by the end of this month, and yet it’s good to have him out here in uniform.”

Payton went on to talk larger about Nix’s impact after just two seasons as a pro, going back to his own comment from last training camp where the coach said the quarterback could be one of the five best in the sport. 

“I’m pleased with his progress. I’m pleased with his ability to lead our team, and the experience,” Payton said. “All of his superpowers, ability to move and not get sacked, find throws. I don’t think any of that will be impacted at all (by the ankle.) And I think he’s working extremely hard on this recovery, and I think he’s more than ahead of schedule.”

When Payton first told the world about the injury after the win against Buffalo, Nix was slated to be back in a month or more. But what was revealed Tuesday as a bone spur and a second operation pushed his return back, and many fans worried the issues could creep into July and possibly August.

“Even though I probably could have gone again, done the whole season again, it was just aggravating me for too long,” Nix said of the bone spur. “Thought it best to go ahead and decompress it a little bit, and then still have plenty of time to get back for the summer. I’m actually sort of glad we’ve got it all out of the way.”

This isn’t his first ankle rodeo, either.

“When I had an ankle injury in high school, we won the state championship. When I had an ankle injury in college, we went and won a lot of games at Oregon, and now I expect it to be the same thing,” Nix said. “It’s just another bump in the road.”

The mobility — the trait that turns Nix into one of the better quarterbacks in the league — isn’t going anywhere, he and his coach say.

“They say it’s back healthy, as good as new, and that I hadn’t really been like that in a couple years,” Nix said. “My concern is maybe I’ll move around a little bit better.”

That’s a problem for the rest of the league, not for Denver.

“It’s not like today’s the first day he’s put sunscreen on,” Payton said about what Nix was doing on the sidelines during OTAs. “He’s been out here and getting a lot of work in.”

There has been a lot of noise about whether the Broncos star’s leg works right, or ever will again. One of those questions that stuck with Nix was a child at the park.

“Nobody’s really ever cared about me this extensively for a long time, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Nix said. “I got little kids at the park asking me if my legs are crooked, and I just think it’s sort of crazy.”

So what did he tell the kid?

“I asked him, I said, ‘does it look like my ankles are crooked,’ and he sort of gave me a good nod, but thank God he didn’t say yes,” Nix said with a grin. “The kid was probably 12, and he just thought it was cool to ask. I learned a long time ago, when you live this life and you’re thrown into the center of attention, you carry a lot of burdens, good and bad, and you just have to roll with it all.”

Nix sounded confident and proud over his 15 minutes at the podium on Tuesday. The one thing bothering him wasn’t his ankle, it was the way his ankle has been talked about.

“We live in a culture where you get second-hand sources and you just run with them,” Nix said. “But at the end of the day, I’ve been here before, I feel great. I’m gonna be strong, I’m gonna be fast, elusive. Everything that I’ve done in the past, I’m gonna be able to do again. It’s a broken bone, for crying out loud. It’s not going to hinder me at all.”

Nix heads into Year 3, looking to take another step forward with the Broncos. Year 1, the team made the playoffs. Year 2, the group won a postseason game. Year 3 would logically be a trip to the Super Bowl.

“I think it’s probably, in my opinion, the furthest we’ve been at this point in the season,” Nix said. “So really confident and excited to get through the summer into training camp.”

The Broncos open at Kansas City on Monday Night Football, Sept. 14. By then, this won’t be a story.

By the end of June, it might not be one either.