Many Broncos fans are concerned about Bo Nix’s ankle injury as the quarterback missed the NFL Conference Championship game against the Patriots on Sunday. Nix was never expected to be able to recover in time for the match, given that he had surgery only last week on the broken right foot that he sustained during overtime in the game against the Bills. At the time, it was expected that the 25-year-old athlete would take a long time to heal, with one doctor believing that he would only be ready by the first week of the upcoming 2026 NFL season. Since then, Nix has received good news on that front, though the road to recovery will still be tough.
Nix expected to recover faster than expected
Bo Nix is likely to heal his broken ankle injury within three or four weeks, or 12 to 16 weeks, according to NFL insider Ian Rapoport on Sunday’s NFL Game Day Morning broadcast. That means that Nix should be back at practice at some point around May 2026.
While this is a tough update for the quarterback, the surgery revealed that the injury wasn’t as severe as originally expected and there was “limited ligament damage and no joint surface damage.” Dr. Norman Waldrop performed the surgery successfully on the fractured ankle. The recovery will still be “frustrating,” though, as Nix will not be able to put any weight on the foot during that time, so he won’t be able to do any weight-bearing movements.
That said, the report didn’t provide that many details on the extent of the injury. On that front, NFL injury expert Jesse Morse shared his analysis on X (formerly Twitter) on the type of fracture that the quarterback suffered.
He reminded readers that Nix has a history of right ankle fractures that have required surgery, particularly one that ended his season in 2021 when he was player for Auburn University. After watching the sequence of plays that lead to the fracture in the first place, noting that “he was hobbling but he never went down and needed to be carted off,” Morse believes that he “likely did not suffer a significant high-ankle sprain or fracture of the tibia.” Instead, he thinks prior traumas to his foot could have played a role in his new injury.
On that front, one source told ESPN that the break in his ankle was actually in a spot that’s different than his past foot injuries. Doctors told Nix that the injury is “nothing to be concerned about long term.”
To get more clarity, Morse “spoke with a friend who is a high-ankle foot and ankle surgeon,” giving him Nix’s injury history and his three- to four-month recovery time.
The doctor replied, “If it was a syndesmosis injury, I would think he would be weight-bearing much faster.” A “syndesmosis injury” is more or less a high ankle sprain.
He continued, “This sounds to me like a possible deltoid ligament injury. That would explain a longer timeline. It would be an ORIF, if the fibula (fractured) and then a medial approach for the deltoid. Obviously I’m speculating but that appears to fit the timeline much more than a syndesmosis injury.” An ORIF, which stands for Open Reduction and Internal Fixation, is a two-part surgery that repairs bone fractures that can’t be healed using a cast by itself.
“It could be just be a mild deltoid injury versus one of the significant ones,” he speculated. “With a mild one, he could walk on it [if not severe].”
Fortunately, Nix is expected to recover in time to be able to participate in the Bronco’s OTAs (Organized Team Activities) during the off-season that are normally conducted in late spring.
