Denver Broncos fans should be rooting for the easiest path to the Super Bowl.
Wanting anything else is silly.
No one remembers at the parade how “hard” it was for their team to win a championship. They just want to hoist the trophy — and that shouldn’t be apologized for.
And at the end of the day, the AFC playoff bracket breaking a very specific way for the Broncos would be ideal. In a perfect world, all the division winners take their home games.
That would mean the Jaguars getting past the Bills, the Patriots topping the Chargers and then the Steelers beating the Texans on Monday Night Football.
This would accomplish a few things.
First, two of the “scarier” teams in the AFC field would be going home early in Buffalo and Houston. The Broncos would never have to face Josh Allen or the vaunted Texans defense.
And second, if it goes down this way, the lowly Steelers are coming to Empower Field at Mile High while the Jaguars and Patriots battle it out it in the other divisional game. That would mean getting past Pittsburgh earns Denver a spot in the AFC Title Game.
The Steelers are clearly the weakest team on the AFC side of things. They went 10-7 in the regular season but didn’t have a ton of convincing victories. They needed a bad miss field goal by the Ravens at the buzzer to even make the dance.
Head coach Mike Tomlin knows football, but it feels like the Tomlin experience has run its course in Pittsburgh. And QB Aaron Rodgers was once great, but his star is fading fast at 42-years-old.
It’d be absolutely ideal for Sean Payton, the top tier Broncos defense and its middle of the road offense to face the Steelers in the NFL’s version of the “elite eight.” Nothing is given in sports, but it feels like that’s Denver best shot by a mile of getting to the conference championship game.
And after that, anything can happen. Maybe if this Broncos team gets one postseason win under its belt it can gain some confidence and run this thing all the way to a Super Bowl victory.
There’s no shame in rooting for specific outcomes in the best interest of your team. It seems like this shouldn’t be controversial, but some folks get caught up in wanting the “hardest” path possible.
Life’s hard, that doesn’t mean cheering for your favorite team should be as well. This is sports after all and winning trophies is what makes it fun.
In the Broncos case, that Lombardi Trophy has a much more realistic chance of happening if the Steelers are their first playoff foe.
Don’t overthink this one, let’s go Jaguars, Patriots and Steelers and set up the bracket in the most favorable way possible from the jump.
And while Denver players probably won’t admit that into a microphone, they privately probably feel the same way. It’s been a long season, there’s no shame in wanting a lesser opponent for the Broncos eventual playoff opener.
