Who is Jarrett Stidham, Denver Broncos quarterback set to start AFC Championship game after Bo Nix's injury?
Jarrett Stidham, the Denver Broncos' backup quarterback, will start the AFC Championship game next Sunday after Bo Nix had a season-ending injury on Saturday.
Nix, in his second NFL season, has started every game of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Saturday, he fractured a bone in his ankle on the second-to-last play of the game in overtime. Sunday will mark the first NFL game he misses.
Broncos kicker Wil Lutz sank a field goal at the end of the game to secure the Broncos' presence in the AFC Championship.
With Nix now out, and surgery scheduled for Tuesday, Stidham will take his place on Sunday and, should the Broncos win that game, in the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, too.
Nix is leaving big shoes to fill on Sunday, after a wildly successful season. Stidham, a former New England Patriot and Las Vegas Raider, is currently in his third year as a Bronco.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton said after Saturday's game that, "he'll be ready to go and ready for the moment."
"The plan has always got to be 'build around the type and skillset of the players you're playing with.' Are there certain things that Bo does differently than Stiddy? Absolutely. That's where the work begins tonight," Payton said.
The 29-year-old Kentucky native is 117-197 in his career with a 59.4% completion rate. He's thrown for 1,422 yards in the NFL with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.
In his 2022 season with the Raiders, he showed what CBS Sports called "on-the-move confidence" after he took over as starting QB there in Weeks 17 and 18.
Stidham will become the first NFL quarterback to start in a conference championship without throwing a single pass during the regular season.
But history says backups can do it all. Most recently, Nick Foles led the Eagles to a World Championship, winning Super Bowl LII as Carson Wentz's backup.
Stidham started his college career at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and then played at Auburn University in Alabama before going to the NFL draft.
In the NFL, he's played 20 total games and started two games with the Raiders in the 2022 season, losing both, and two games with the Broncos the following year, winning one.