It’s November, and the Denver Broncos are winning games, so it’s time for the annual sideline blowup between quarterback Bo Nix and head coach Sean Payton—two people who have shown over the last 3 seasons that they’re unafraid to go at each other in public.
The latest moment came in Sunday’s 26-21 road win over the Carolina Panthers when a video posted to social media by NFL on Fox’s Henry McKenna went viral.
In the video, Nix and Payton have a quick back-and-forth after an almost-disastrous fumble on a pitch to rookie running back Jonah Coleman deep in Broncos territory late in the fourth quarter, which resulted in an 18-yard loss after Coleman hustled to track the ball down.
It appears Nix tries to get the last word in, barking something back over his shoulder and walking toward the bench … only to have quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore try to stop him as Payton comes running up from behind to continue the conversation.
“Bo Nix … kept walking away from Sean Payton, who had a lot to say,” McKenna wrote on his official X account.
Nix, to his credit, didn’t stop for Kilgore or Payton and kept chirping on his way to the bench as Payton kept barking at him.
The Broncos won their fifth straight game to improve to 7-2.
Reactions Pour in to Nix and Payton’s Latest Tiff
It was the second time in three games that Payton appeared to call a risky, unnecessary play late in the game while the Broncos were leading, and it almost ended in disaster. In a Week 7 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Payton called a reverse that injured star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.
“Lotta tension there,” 9News Denver’s Mike Klis wrote on his official X account on Sunday night.
“This was after the Broncos nearly turned it over on the botched pitch between Bo Nix and Jonah Coleman late in the game,” The Denver Post’s Parker Gabriel wrote on his official X account. “Sean Payton felt the need to get at least one more point in on whatever this chat was about.”
Bo Nix & Sean Payton Have History of Blowups
Nix, who owns the record for the most wins by a quarterback in their first two seasons and is the first quarterback in NFL history with 20+ wins, 7,500+ passing yards & 50+ passing TDs in his first 2 seasons, has a history of going back at Payton — a coach who seems to thrive in moments of high tension.
In Nix’s rookie year, the 2024 1st-round pick and Payton had a dust-up on the sideline of a Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Afterward, Payton compared the rookie QB to one of cinema history’s most famous rule-breakers.
“There’s still a little bit of Ferris Bueller in that player that we got to get rid of,” Payton said about the argument. “I’m talking about Bo, and I love him to death. Sometimes it’s my love language … did you watch the movie? Have you ever seen it?”
Nix certainly had.
“Life moves pretty fast,” Nix wrote on his official Instagram account after the game, quoting one of Bueller’s most famous lines from the 1986 film, which came out 14 years before Nix was born. “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Sideline Argument Between Broncos QB Bo Nix & HC Sean Payton Goes Viral