Broncos' Bo Nix says his broken ankle won't affect his offseason or hinder him once it heals

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Bo Nix insists he'll be the same dual-threat quarterback he was before breaking his right ankle in the playoffs and missing the AFC championship game.

The Denver Broncos signal-caller said a simple misstep led to a clean break and required a straightforward fix.

He said the injury was “nothing that concerns me, nothing that scares me going forward like I'm injury-prone or anything. This is one of those just inconvenient football plays and I'm excited already to get back to work. I can't necessarily avoid anything in the future, but I feel really good that my body's going to be in good shape.”

Speaking on a conference call Wednesday, Nix said he was going to take some time off anyway after the season, so his recovery and rehab over the next several weeks won’t necessarily impede his offseason training.

Nix also clarified two things about his injury. He said it was independent of previous ankle issues he dealt with in high school and college; and he said what made his injury inevitable wasn't a predisposition — as coach Sean Payton described it a day earlier — but a developing stress fracture that gave way to a full break.

Durability has never been an issue with Nix.

“I'd probably say four years, probably over 60 games straight of me getting to play and not missing games,” Nix said. “So, I don't really worry about the durability. Honestly, with a simple break like this I'll feel as good as new, won't have any hiccups even getting back going with training.

“I was going to give myself some time off anyway and this sort of makes me take that time off work, won't be able to scratch the itch and get back out there too early,” Nix added. “This will slow me down, make sure I'm taking my rest. ... I'm still going to be running around.”

Indeed, Nix was cruising around team headquarters this week on his medical scooter so he could say his goodbyes to teammates and coaches.

Nix said the injury “won't affect my training, won't affect my season next year. If anything, it'll just allow me to go out there and play more free knowing hey, there's nothing you can do about” freak injuries.

Backup Jarrett Stidham replaced Nix on Sunday and he committed a series of blunders, including a fumble at his own 12 that led to the Patriots' only touchdown and helped New England advance to the Super Bowl.

Sitting out the game “was terrible,” Nix said. “It was very helpless. Wasn’t much I could do about it. It’s tough to see when you go down, the show just keeps right on going. I think that’s the toughest part. ... It was a bummer. It was tough. It was a tough week.”

Nix watched the game from a suite at Empower Field at Mile High after returning from Birmingham, Alabama, where Dr. Norman E. Waldrop III, a foot and ankle specialist at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, operated on his ankle.

He called the operation “a very quick procedure, very easy operation, just a simple bone break. Got that fixed up. Great surgeon. Great care. And just right back on my road to recovery, a typical bone break, four to six weeks, I’ll be back training.”

In his first public comments since getting hurt, Nix also said he didn't realize the extent of his injury right away. Before going for X-rays, he was celebrating Denver's 33-30 win on Wil Lutz's field goal to cap a drive fueled by Ja'Quan McMillian's interception of Josh Allen's deep pass.

Nix said he was crushed to learn his season was over.

“You go that long and you play that many games and you have that big of a season and then it kind of comes to and end abruptly like that, it stinks,” Nix said.

But, he added, “my sights are already on nest year and how I can be better and lead this team better and play better. I'm just excited for the offseason work and to get back to the physical part of training.”

Nix has led the Broncos to back-to-back playoff appearances and tied Russell Wilson's NFL record with 24 regular-season wins in his first two years.

His early success has made his position coach, former NFL QB Davis Webb, who just turned 31, a hot coaching candidate. Webb has interviewed for the Las Vegas Raiders' head coaching job. Should he stay in Denver, there's speculation he'll get a bigger role, maybe even taking over play-calling duties from Sean Payton, who fired his longtime right-hand man and offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi on Tuesday.

“Davis is a tremendous coach,” Nix said. “He really knows how to communicate with his players. ... I think highly of him. I know he's a really good football coach and I know he's got a lot in store for him in the future.”

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Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix leaves the field after an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix throws during the first half of an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix celebrates after a touchdown during the second half of an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix celebrates after an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge gave a man would-be assassin the maximum 15 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to kill an Iranian American writer on behalf of Tehran after hearing the woman who was targeted describe multiple attempts on her life as threats against all Americans.

Judge Lewis J. Liman said Carlisle Rivera’s written conversations as he plotted to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn in 2024 were “chilling” and he inflicted “great harm” on her and her husband.

Addressing the court, the couple described how assassination plots forced them to limit interactions with their children as they frequently changed residences and dodged threats from an unrelenting Iran.

“I’m just a woman,” Alinejad said. “My weapon is my voice. My weapon is my social media.”

She urged the judge to give Rivera the maximum sentence to send a message to anyone “targeting U.S. citizens on U.S. soil” and to “protect unarmed people like me now facing massacre in my country.”

People in Iran, Alinejad said, are “facing guns and bullets ... to protect the global security,” including for Americans.

Before the sentence was announced, Rivera, 51, told the judge: “I’m deeply sorry for my actions.”

Outside the Manhattan federal courthouse, Alinejad said the United States must be careful to not let indiscriminate killings happening in Iran spread to the U.S. As she spoke she held up a computer tablet and showed reporters video clips of body bags of some of the thousands of Iranians killed during recent protests.

Alinejad said she hoped President Donald Trump would go after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei like he did Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was seized in a January U.S. military raid and brought to face drug trafficking charges in New York. He has pleaded not guilty.

“I am calling on President Trump. Take action. Removing terrorists is not tragedy. It’s a sign of justice,” Alinejad said. She added, however, that she does not want Iran bombed — just the removal of its leaders.

She noted that U.S. authorities have said Iran's Revolutionary Guard was responsible for not only multiple plots against her life but also a plot against Trump.

Alinejad left Iran in 2009 following the country’s disputed presidential election and moved to the United States, where she launched online campaigns to encourage Iranian women to pose for pictures and videos showing their hair in defiance of a religious rule requiring headscarves.

An author and contributor to the Voice of America and CBS News, Alinejad became a citizen in 2019. She has traveled the world speaking to women and encouraging others to join her movement for women's freedom of expression, particularly those in Iran.

Last year she testified at the trial of two men charged with plotting to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home and kill her in 2022. A prosecutor said Iran put a $500,000 bounty on her head. The defendants, both natives of Azerbaijan, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years.

In November 2024 the Justice Department accused Tehran of authorizing a murder-for-hire plot against Trump days before he won reelection. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson reportedly denied the allegation. The person who tried to hire killers to go after Trump also organized the plot against Alinejad, authorities said.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump's reelection. Trump’s first administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

In court Wednesday, a prosecutor said Rivera was supposed to surveil Alinejad's planned February 2024 appearance at Fairfield University in Connecticut, an event that was canceled. Afterward, according to court papers, Rivera tried for months to surveil Alinejad at a Brooklyn home where she no longer lived.

During a break in the proceeding, Alinejad approached Rivera's fiancee, who sobbed as she hugged Alinejad, telling her: “I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

Outside the courthouse afterward, Alinejad said she told the woman: “I said, 'I'm fighting for you, I'm fighting for all Americans ... when I asked President Trump to try to get the killers.'”

Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad speaks outside Manhattan federal court after the sentencing of a man who admitted to agreeing to try to kill her on behalf of the Iranian government Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad speaks outside Manhattan federal court after the sentencing of a man who admitted to agreeing to try to kill her on behalf of the Iranian government Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)