Basically, the Broncos coach knew 9NEWS would break the Nix injury if he didn’t let his players know through his second, postgame press conference.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Broncos starting center Luke Wattenberg suffered a shoulder injury in a mid-December Sunday loss to Jacksonville, no one outside the team learned about it until he didn’t show up for practice the following Tuesday. The significance of the shoulder ailment wasn’t learned until Christmas afternoon when Wattenberg was placed on four-week injured reserve.

Sean Payton, the Broncos’ head coach, usually acts as if he’d rather divulge a family secret than reveal an injury before the official injury report comes out. So why did he announce his starting quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury a mere 65 minutes after he led the Broncos to a 33-30 AFC Divisional Round overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills, and that Jarrett Stidham would start in the AFC Championship Game against either New England or Houston?

The motivation, Payton said in so many words, was he feared the likes of 9NEWS would break the story. He wanted his team, by way of another press conference podium address, to hear from himself. So Payton went back to the press conference room to announce Nix’s injury and surgery on Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama.

“I would have liked to have talked to the team first,’’ Payton said in a Zoom media call Sunday. “But half the locker room had left. There’s no way that story survives until Monday when I talk to the team. I don’t want the team to hear from you all first or any national media first. Because that story is going to break in 24 hours.

“Now, if we were meeting this morning at 9 a.m., I wouldn’t have come back to see you. I would have addressed it after the team meeting. We discussed it [with public relations lead Patrick Smyth and general manager George Paton] and said, ‘Why don’t I just go in and tell everyone what happened?’ That seems to me like the smartest and easiest thing to do and be straight forward with it and at least the players are going to hear that from me on the podium and not from some national insider (or 9NEWS Broncos reporter) that gets it from an agent or gets from a doctor . You guys know the routine.

“And so I showered and then just came back in and we just felt it was the best way to handle it relative to the thinking being our own club, our own players.”

Nix’s injury was such that he either would have gone to his postgame press conference with the aid of crutches, or the team would have announced he was getting evaluated for an injury and couldn’t attend the press conference. Either way, 9NEWS would have got to the bottom of it. So Payton, in consultation with Smyth and Paton, elected for a proactive approach to get ahead of the story.

When did Payton first realize the severity of Nix’s injury?

“He gets hurt on the running play [with 6:04 remaining in the first overtime period], then we call the ‘Stutter Spears.’ We get the big pass interference penalty,” Payton said. “Then we center the ball, so he actually technically got hurt on his [fourth]-to-last play. He centers the ball for us, and then as he comes over, I kind of chest bump him, jab him like, ‘Freaking A!’

“And he’s like, ‘Careful.’ I’m like, ‘You all right?’ He said, ‘Yes, but it’s hurting.’ I said, ‘What do you got?’ He said, ‘My ankle.’ I said, ‘All right, you’ll be fine.’ And I jabbed him in the chest again. I said, ‘Just enjoy this field goal.’’’

Wil Lutz made the 24-yard field goal with 4:44 remaining in overtime, igniting a jubilant celebration from the crowd in the stands and Broncos on the field.

Afterwards, Nix conducted a quick, on-field network interview, then pointed his No. 1 fingers at the crowd rather than go through his usual high-five victory lap with fans on the west side of the stadium. He was hobbling around in the locker room as Payton went to address the media on the win. When Payton came back to his office, there was medical boss Beau Lowery, Paton and Smyth waiting for him in his office.

“AnI knew,’’ Payton said. “They didn’t say anything, but I knew there was something. We always meet after the game and discuss injuries, but that was early. They said, ‘Look, there’s a fracture.’ Showed me the X-ray. Immediately, I walked down the hall. Bo was kind of sitting outside the locker room, leaning up against the wall. His wife, his parents, family there, I think ‘Stidy,’ a few others.’’

Wattenberg, by the way, is eligible to return from IR this week and snap the ball to Stidham in the AFC Championship Game next Sunday.