Then of course came the revelation of the Bo Nix injury, which quickly wiped all of that away.
While Denver focuses on backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham with Nix’s season-ending ankle fracture, there are many more areas of optimism and concern heading into next weekend’s AFC Championship. Here’s The Denver Post’s stock report on a wild win over Buffalo.
Stock up
Nik Bonitto: On Tuesday, Denver’s star pass rusher all but shook off his lack of sack production over the course of another Pro Bowl season.
“No stress on my part as far as that kind of thing,” Bonitto told The Post.
No stress necessary indeed. Bonitto got things going again with a sack-and-a-half effort against the Chargers in Week 18, and Denver’s game-wrecker was exactly the force of nature the Broncos needed on Saturday. The only thing missing from the 26-year-old Bonitto’s season — besides an All-Pro nod — was a consistent effort in the run game, as he’s sometimes neutralized by one-on-one blocks on the outside. But against Buffalo, Bonitto chased Bills MVP Josh Allen about twelve yards in the second quarter and knocked the ball away for a forced fumble.
Josh Allen rightly gets most of the blame for this, but it’s also a great play from Nik Bonitto. He covered a lot of ground to get to Allen and play the ball. pic.twitter.com/KyEYDCBFlk
— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel) January 17, 2026
In the third quarter, Bonitto reached Allen again for his second forced fumble of the day. He is in full play-off mode.
Malcolm Roach: Talk about pass rushers making a difference. Roach had one total sack over four years and 41 games early in his career in New Orleans; this season, the Broncos defensive tackle now has 5.5 through 13 games (regular season and playoffs). He has become a legitimate force on the interior, and one that has major implications for Denver’s future.
#Broncos DT Malcolm Roach has made a huge leap as a pass rusher this year. Has major consequences for the future. Now has 5.5 sacks in 13 games this year (reg + post).
Incredibly athletic play here to deflect his man and chase down Josh Allen in the second quarter Saturday pic.twitter.com/jwGYcMXQ5K
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) January 18, 2026
Roach’s development has helped keep All-Pro DT Zach Allen fresh and limiting his reps this year, and Roach has shown the athleticism and pass-rush ability to play next to Allen or Eyioma Uwazurike at starting DE. John Franklin-Myers will leave in free agency in 2026. Denver’s three-year, $29.25 million extension for Roach in November looks like a steal.
Johnny Mo: Let’s break this down. During a short week of preparation for an AFC divisional round game with Buffalo, Payton brought in an outside consultant and then picked his brain for a goal-line play in which he threw a touchdown to a second-year reserve offensive lineman.
“Nothing he does,” receiver Marvin Mims told The Post on Saturday, “surprises me.”There had of course been a relationship of trust with that advisor for a long time. John Morton is officially back in an advisory role with Denver, after serving as Payton’s passing-game coordinator from 2023 to 2024 before taking a job with the Detroit Lions (and recently being fired). This could be a soft launch for Payton’s staff in 2026, as 30-year-old Davis Webb could be headed for a coordinator job or even a head coaching job elsewhere. Either way, it’s objectively hilarious that Morton would earn a Super Bowl ring if this Broncos team made it that far.
Special Teams Demons: Broncos ST coordinator Darren Rizzi ultimately didn’t get the head coaching job of the New York Giants, an unfortunate victim of the post-John Harbaugh coaching carousel. But Rizzi is doing great in Denver, with a special teams unit that has become deadly.
All-Pro teamer Devon Key had two monster tackles against Buffalo on Saturday, doing what he does best on the kickoff. Kicker Wil Lutz scored four field goals, including the eventual game-winning chip shot. And punter Jeremy Crawshaw delivered one of Saturday’s most clutch plays, with a 55-yard boot to pin Buffalo at their own 7-yard line on their final offensive drive of overtime.
Continued excellence will be paramount here on Sunday without Nix.
Stock down
WR depth: After all, maybe Denver should have gotten a wideout at the trade deadline.
After rookie Pat Bryant went down with a concussion on the Broncos’ first drive against Buffalo and second-year WR Troy Franklin exited in the second quarter with a hamstring injury, the perpetually underutilized Marvin Mims Jr. stepped up. and veteran Lil’Jordan Humphrey on huge touchdown grabs against the Bills. But even Mims admitted during his locker postgame that neither his fourth-quarter score nor Humphrey’s second-quarter touchdown was “the look you want.”
Bryant has now suffered two concussions in one month. Franklin’s sudden exit with the hamstring was somewhat ominous. If Denver is both down on Sunday, Mims will need major adjustments. The Broncos could also look to elevate veteran Elijah Moore or sign practice squad mainstay Michael Bandy to the 53-man active roster. But they are alarmingly thin here.
Courtland Sutton: In related news, Denver’s No. 1 WR simply wasn’t good enough against the Bills, despite some moments. Sutton got going in the fourth quarter and overtime, with a 25-yard grab on a 3rd-and-11 play by Nix on the final drive of regulation. But he went without a catch for three quarters, and several difficult grabs slipped through his hands.
The Broncos paid Sutton a lot of money this season to make those kinds of plays in high-leverage situations, the kind he’s been making all year. But he finished with just four catches for 53 yards in nine targets against the Bills, and Denver needs more consistency from him against New England.
Backfield Confidence: Backup RB Jaleel McLaughlin averaged more than 5 yards for the fifth straight game, and rookie RJ Harvey did some outstanding things in the passing game against Buffalo. Overall, though, Payton showed a complete unwillingness to trust his backfield against one of the league’s worst defenses in the Bills.
Nix ran 12 times. McLaughlin and Harvey combined for 10 carries. To be fair, McLaughlin fumbled in the red zone in the first quarter, but Denver still recovered the ball. The overall breakdown showed that Payton has virtually no confidence in a Bronco as a bell cow at this point. Maybe he just needs one Sunday to support Stidham, though.
The Payton-Vance Joseph Relationship: Boy, there would have been some awkward conversations if the Broncos had lost on Sunday. They were already there, on the sidelines. With Buffalo pinned at its own 12-yard line and facing a 3rd-and-5 in overtime, quarterback Josh Allen managed to escape and find a wide-open Dalton Kincaid for a first down.
Payton turned on the sideline, yelled at defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and hit him with his clipboard.
This happened several times on Buffalo’s final drive, which seemed poised to put the Broncos out of business before Ja’Quan McMillian came up with the interception of a lifetime. In all, Joseph’s defense generated five turnovers but often looked helpless against James Cook on the ground (24 carries for 117 yards) or Kincaid (six catches for 83 yards and a score). It was almost not good enough.
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