Jan. 11, 2026, 5:01 a.m. MT

The Denver Broncos now know what to expect in a playoff atmosphere. This time, they have an edge: home-field advantage and the full force of the Mile High faithful (and thin air!) behind them. And they are ready.

Denver played a lot of close games this season, which could help them come the playoffs, where most of the games come down to just a few plays. Quarterback Bo Nix talked about how this could help them in January.

“I think we’ve been fortunate this year to play in a lot of close games and we’ve won a lot of close games,” said Nix. “It hasn’t been the pretty… The ones that you want. The flashy, big-time wins. The ones where you get to go over there and sit, rest a little bit in the fourth [quarter]. It’s part of it. Sometimes you have to go and play the tough ones. It’s better to win some of these tough ones than lose them, obviously, for our position. It has put us in a position to understand what winning football is like. We’ve played a lot of playoff teams in these tough situations.”

Some of the playoff teams the Broncos have faced this year include the Los Angeles Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Broncos went 4-2 in those games, with two of those wins and one loss being a one-score game; three games (Denver played two against the Chargers) were more than one score, and the Broncos went 2-1 in those games.

“A lot of them have felt a little bit what physical, competitive football feels like,” Nix said. “A lot of guys fighting for a seed or fighting to get in the tournament in general. I think it’ll help us. It definitely won’t hurt us. It’ll give us the experience and speed up the experience for some of the young guys like myself [to] give us the best chance to hopefully go in here and understand how to win some of these games.”

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Cornerback Pat Surtain also spoke about the playoff atmospheres Denver has been in this year.

“We had some playoff atmospheres this year where we had some adversity early on in the game and we find a way to bounce back and finish games,” said Surtain. “I feel like we are definitely battle-tested in that regard and we always find ways to win. Just in the playoffs, though, we can’t find ourselves shooting ourselves in the foot consistently. We have to find ways to really dominate and find ways to get a faster start. I think that’s what we need to focus on moving forward. As a team, we are battle-tested. We are strong as a unit and it showed over the whole season.”

Denver’s battle-readiness will be tested when they face their next opponent at Mile High in the divisional round.

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