{"id":77789,"date":"2025-05-25T12:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T12:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/77789\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T12:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T12:01:19","slug":"denver-broncos-projected-to-make-playoffs-again-even-win-afc-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/77789\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver Broncos projected to make playoffs again, even win AFC West"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos are projected to make the playoffs after the 2025-26 season, per statistical models and on FOX Sports reporter.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but the same Henry McKenna of FOX Sports is picking Denver to win the AFC West.<\/p>\n

Yes, these predictions are way too early, but no one can deny the Broncos are on the rise in the Chiefs-dominated division.<\/p>\n

Denver Broncos projected to make playoffs for second straight year<\/p>\n

After an agonizing eight-year run of missing the playoffs, the Broncos made it back to the postseason in last year and are on schedule to make the playoffs again this season.<\/p>\n

They have a legitimate starting quarterback in Bo Nix and added a star tight end in Evan Engram this offseason. Defensively, Denver was the best sacking team in the league and top-3 in both points allowed (18.3 PPG) and red zone percentage (46.9%).<\/p>\n

And running the team is an experienced winner in Sean Payton as head coach. This time last year, the Broncos over\/under win total for 2024 was 5.5 games.<\/p>\n

Payton said of the number, \u201cThe next time I only win six games in a season will be the first.\u201d And Denver ended up going 10-7.<\/p>\n

This year, the number-crunching machines and human analysts are higher on Denver. Mike Clay\u2019s projections<\/a> have Denver at 9.7 wins, with Kansas City at 10.0. And the Las Vegas folks have the Broncos at a 9.5 O\/U win total this year.<\/p>\n

10 wins should be enough to make the playoffs, and the SportsLine Projection Model<\/a> gives Denver a 55.7% chance of making it back into the postseason.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The top-9 projected teams in the AFC per SportsLine\u2019s model.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, Payton has turned this team around in a hurry. They were competitive in 2023, and playoff-bound in 2024. If Payton stays coaching in the Mile High City for a while, Denver may enjoy a long run of postseason berths.<\/p>\n

Denver as the new AFC West champion?<\/p>\n

While multiple different statistical models predict the Broncos will make the playoffs in the 2025-26 season, one FOX Sports<\/a> analyst has gone even further.<\/p>\n

Henry McKenna not only predicted this season\u2019s playoff teams, he created a bracket and went through the matchups.<\/p>\n

In his bracket, the Broncos will win the AFC West and earn the No. 3 seed, while the Chiefs will be the 6 seed. That would mean the two will go head-to-head in the Wild Card Round.<\/p>\n

\"FOX<\/a><\/p>\n

Henry McKenna\u2019s way-too-early playoff predictions.<\/p>\n

If this did play out, not only would the Broncos and Chiefs play three times in the season, but they\u2019d also play only two weeks apart.<\/p>\n

Denver heads to Kansas City for a Week 17 Christmas Day game, then face the Chargers in Week 18. The playoffs kick off the next week.<\/p>\n

McKenna didn\u2019t just pick the Broncos to win the West, he says they\u2019ll beat the Chiefs 13-10 and then lose to the Bills for a second straight year in the Divisional Round 17-14.<\/p>\n

In his prediction, the Bills become the eventual Super Bowl LX Champions in a 27-26 win over the LA Rams.<\/p>\n

Considering we\u2019re still in May, this is certainly a \u201cway-too-early\u201d guess. But instead of being a laughing stock of the league, the Broncos are being looked at as playoff contenders now. Both by statistical predictive models and analysts.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a move in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos are projected to make the playoffs after the 2025-26 season, per statistical models and on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[925,232,231,258,2426,7,6,16026,1813],"class_list":{"0":"post-77789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-bo-nix","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-on-fox","16":"tag-sean-payton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114568369579322928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77789","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=77789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}