The day before Bo Nix made his NFL debut, Caleb Nix unknowingly played through a severe injury.
Clemson rebounded from a Week 1 loss to Georgia to earn a 66-20 victory over Appalachian State on Saturday. Two days later, head coach Dabo Swinney revealed that Caleb Nix suffered a torn ACL on the first play.
The safety kept playing, and the team didn’t diagnose the injury until Monday.
“He played the whole game with a torn ACL, on all the special teams – I’m talking covering kicks, the whole deal,” Swinney said, per The Clemson Insider’s Gavin Oliver. “He said he just felt like something wasn’t right, but he just kept playing and didn’t really say anything to anybody. He thought he just hyperextended his knee.”
Nix joined the team as a walk-on in 2022. He’s played 10 games but recorded his only tackle in last season’s Week 3 win over Florida Atlantic.
Overall, it was a tough weekend for the Nix family. Bo Nix registered 138 passing yards and two interceptions on 42 attempts in his first NFL game, a 26-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Only Daniel Jones and Bryce Young had a lower quarterback rating than the Denver Broncos’ first-round pick (47.5) in Week 1.
“It was a great game of learning, a great growing game,” Bo Nix told reporters Wednesday, per the team’s site. “I think the film was positive. You get back and you see that there were opportunities, and [you] just [have to] capitalize on a few more areas.”
Caleb Nix is out for the rest of the season, but Bo’s Broncos will host the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday.
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