The Houston Texans defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 20-16 in Week 17. So, the Denver Broncos, for the first time in 10 years, are AFC West champions. That said, it appears the Chargers will rest their starters in Week 18 as well — gifting the Broncos the No. 1 seed in the AFC Conference. So, let’s see who the Broncos may play in their first playoff game.
Seeing Who the Broncos Will Play in Their First Playoff Game
From a practical standpoint, it looks like the Broncos will snag the No. 1 seed in the AFC Conference in Week 18 against the Chargers’ backups. So, that would give Denver the only bye week in the conference in the playoffs. The question becomes, who would the Broncos play in the elite eight of the playoffs? There’s still a lot of moving parts, but we’ll attempt to predict the AFC playoff seeds with two weeks to go.
It appears, in all likelihood, the Chargers will be the No. 7 seed and play the No. 2-seeded New England Patriots. Then the Texans, as the No. 6 seed, would play the No. 3-seeded Jacksonville Jaguars. So, that leaves three possibilities for the Broncos’ playoff opponent in the elite eight of the playoffs. There’s the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buffalo Bills, and the Baltimore Ravens — assuming all of the higher-seeded teams win in the wildcard round (the lots of moving parts).
While the Ravens have a fighting chance at winning the AFC North, the Broncos’ divisional round opponent, hypothetically, is most likely going to be the Steelers or the Bills. A month ago, we had the Broncos downing the Steelers in this scenario. But, if seeding holds up, we have the Bills defeating the Steelers in the wildcard round. So, it would be the Bills vs. the Broncos in the divisional round.
And as of this writing, the Bills are averaging the third-most total yards per game (373.1) — including the most rushing yards per game (158.9). In a passing league, pick offense over defense. So, this is a spot Broncos quarterback Bo Nix can’t play with his food. That said, the Broncos total the 10th-most total yards per game (349.1) — including the 10th-most passing yards per game (230.2).
The Bills’ defense isn’t as good as the Broncos’, so the latter should be able to win this shootout. There are a lot of moving parts, but the Bills look like the Broncos’ likely opponent in the elite eight — and the Broncos look like the likely No. 1 seed in the AFC Conference.
