{"id":600219,"date":"2025-12-14T15:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/600219\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:08:14","slug":"can-broncos-clinch-afc-west-in-week-15-how-denver-can-punch-postseason-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/600219\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Broncos clinch AFC West in Week 15? How Denver can punch postseason ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can Broncos clinch AFC West in Week 15? How Denver can punch postseason ticket<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Denver Broncos<\/a> are in position to punch their ticket to the postseason ahead of the Week 15 game against the Green Bay Packers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Denver enters the week in first place in the AFC West<\/a> and in the No. 1 spot in the conference playoff picture.<\/p>\n

If Denver can lock up the top seed, the team would get home-field advantage until the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

But can the Broncos wrap up the division this week? Here’s what we know.<\/p>\n

Can Broncos clinch AFC West in Week 15?<\/p>\n

No, the Broncos can’t secure the division this week.<\/p>\n

Even if the Broncos win and the Chargers<\/a> lose, Los Angeles still has a chance to win the division with three games left thanks to owning the head-to-head tie-breaker for now. The two teams meet again in Week 18.<\/p>\n

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If the Broncos win and the Chargers lose this week, Denver will be in position to clinch the division with just a win in Week 16.<\/p>\n

If the opposite happens in Week 15, the Chargers could take over first place for the time being with a win and a Broncos loss in Week 16.<\/p>\n

How Broncos can clinch playoff berth<\/p>\n

While Denver can’t win the division this week, the Broncos have six ways to clinch a postseason berth in Week 16.<\/p>\n

Here’s how, per NFL.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

DEN tie + HOU loss or tie\u00a0OR<\/p>\n

DEN tie + IND loss or tie\u00a0OR<\/p>\n

HOU loss or tie + IND loss or tie as long as both games don’t end in a tie<\/p>\n

So, the Broncos can actually punch their postseason ticket, even if they lose, but it would take a combination of a tie and a loss from the Houston Texans<\/a> and Indianapolis Colts<\/a> and we know ties are rare.<\/p>\n

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We also know the other four scenarios are unlikely to happen, as they would involve Denver finishing with a tie.<\/p>\n

All that said, the cleanest and easiest way for the Broncos to clinch a playoff berth is with a win over the Packers on Sunday.<\/p>\n

More NFL news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Broncos clinch AFC West in Week 15? How Denver can punch postseason ticket originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[1991,232,241,231,258,2426,7,345,253,392,1014,6,89852,16957],"class_list":{"0":"post-600219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-afc-west","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-chargers","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-denverbroncos","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-green-bay-packers","16":"tag-houston-texans","17":"tag-indianapolis-colts","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-postseason-ticket","21":"tag-week-15"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115718553941127437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}