On Christmas Night, the Denver Broncos defeated the Kansas City Chiefs and put themselves in position to win the AFC West division title and clinch the one seed in the AFC and have homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. To win the AFC West, all they needed was to beat the Chiefs and have the Texans defeat the Chargers on Saturday afternoon. Well, the Texans came through, and the Broncos are your 2025 AFC West division champs.
Now, they set their sights on the one seed in the AFC and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. For that to happen, the Broncos will need two unlikely upsets and the reigning Super Bowl champs to defeat an AFC contender on the road.
The Broncos will need the New York Jets to somehow upset the New England Patriots at home, Grandpa Phillip Rivers and the Colts to upset the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, and the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Bills in Buffalo in a cold and rainy late December game.
While the Eagles have a good shot at defeating the Bills, the odds of both the Jets AND Colts pulling off upsets are extremely low. The Jets are a mess and will be starting rookie quarterback Brady Cook once again. They’ll need Cook to have a career game to pull off this unlikely upset. Meanwhile, the Colts are starting a grandpa at quarterback and are coming off a game where they gave up 48 points to the 49ers. The Jaguars are hot, and it’ll take Phillip Rivers turning back the clock for the Colts to pull off this upset.
Again, the odds of all three of these scenarios playing out are highly unlikely, but stranger things have happened in the NFL.
If the Broncos do not clinch the one seed today, they will need to take care of business vs. the Chargers next week to clinch homefield advantage. The odds of both the Patriots and Jaguars losing one of their final games are low, so the Broncos’ task is simple.
Just win. If not? Get ready to play on wildcard weekend.