{"id":628146,"date":"2025-12-25T19:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T19:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/628146\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T19:28:10","slug":"can-the-denver-broncos-clinch-afc-west-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/628146\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Denver Broncos clinch AFC West today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Denver Broncos<\/a>\u00a0(12-3)\u00a0can’t clinch an AFC West title on Christmas Day, but they could take a step closer toward that goal.<\/p>\n

If the Broncos<\/a> beat the\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>\u00a0(6-9) on Thursday and the\u00a0Houston Texans<\/a>\u00a0(10-5) defeat (or tie) the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>\u00a0(11-4) on Saturday, Denver would clinch a division title. And if both those results go the Broncos<\/a>‘ way, the team could also clinch the AFC’s top seed this weekend.<\/p>\n

If Denver wins and L.A. loses, the Broncos would clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC if the\u00a0New England Patriots<\/a>\u00a0(12-3),\u00a0Buffalo Bills<\/a>\u00a0(11-4) and\u00a0Jaguars<\/a>\u00a0(11-4) also lose. New England, Buffalo and Jacksonville will face the\u00a0New York Jets<\/a>\u00a0(3-12),\u00a0Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>\u00a0(10-5) and\u00a0Indianapolis Colts<\/a>\u00a0(8-7), respectively.<\/p>\n

How Broncos can clinch AFC WestDEN win + LAC loss or tie\u00a0ORDEN tie + LAC lossHow Broncos can clinch AFC’s No. 1 seedDEN win + LAC loss or tie + NE loss + BUF loss or tie + JAX loss or tie<\/p>\n

After traveling to KC, Denver will return home to host the Chargers in Week 18 to close out the regular season.<\/p>\n

Social: Follow\u00a0Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0(12-3)\u00a0can’t clinch an AFC West title on Christmas Day, but they could take a step closer toward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[247,265,215,232,214,53,1872,791,2005,231,258,25,1103,7,6489,60574,221,253,20842,2004,392,212,125,213,60573,246,88,6,35196,84,245,264,242,109,1602,1982,9,266,222,1980,811],"class_list":{"0":"post-628146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-bills","11":"tag-broncos","12":"tag-buffalo","13":"tag-buffalo-bills","14":"tag-christmas","15":"tag-co","16":"tag-colts","17":"tag-denver","18":"tag-denver-broncos","19":"tag-eagles","20":"tag-facebook","21":"tag-football","22":"tag-holiday","23":"tag-holiday-marketplace-hub","24":"tag-houston","25":"tag-houston-texans","26":"tag-hub","27":"tag-indianapolis","28":"tag-indianapolis-colts","29":"tag-jacksonville","30":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","31":"tag-jaguars","32":"tag-marketplace","33":"tag-neutral","34":"tag-news","35":"tag-nfl","36":"tag-nfl-hub","37":"tag-nfl-playoffs","38":"tag-overall","39":"tag-overall-neutral","40":"tag-philadelphia","41":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","42":"tag-smg","43":"tag-smg-timely","44":"tag-sports","45":"tag-sports-news","46":"tag-texans","47":"tag-timely","48":"tag-twitter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628146","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=628146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}