The Denver Broncos have a realistic shot in the 2025 NFL Season at winning the AFC West, and this is as good of a chance as they have had since the 2015 NFL Season. Between injuries piling up and teams regressing in the division, the Broncos might make it out alive.
Denver also has a chance at the no. 1 overall seed in the AFC as well. The Patriots and Colts are both 7-2, and Indy does have the head-to-head over Denver, but there is a lot of football left. Now that we're around the halfway point of the season, things are really beginning to take shape across the league.
We outlined three distinct reasons why the Denver Broncos can win the AFC West this year, so let's dive into it.
Here's why the Denver Broncos can win the AFC West in the 2025 season
Denver Broncos might simply keep winning games
What if... the Broncos simply keep winning games? Denver has won six games in a row and have the following schedule to close out the 2025 NFL regular season:
vs. Las Vegas
vs. Kansas City
@ Washington
@ Las Vegas
vs. Green Bay
vs. Jacksonville
@ Kansas City
vs. Los Angeles
The Denver Broncos have eight remaining games and might only need to win four to capture the AFC West title, but winning five feels likely as well. It's not an overly tough schedule at all, as the hardest part of it feels over and done with at this point. Every single one of the remaining opponents for Denver has at least one serious flaw/roster hole/concern. Denver might just keep stacking wins.
Los Angeles Chargers are banged up and don't have the depth to make up for it
Left tackle Joe Alt is now out for the year, and Rashawn Slater has been out. The LA Chargers' offense is noticeably worse without Alt, and it's not like they haven't dealt with other injuries. Yet again, the Chargers are among the most injured teams in the NFL, and they just do not have the depth to keep up with all of them.
They're also 6-3 on the season and have an uphill battle to catch Denver, but they're trending in the wrong direction despite the win. LA likely won't be able to overcome all of these injuries, especially as we get later on into the season.
Kansas City Chiefs aren't closing out games as well as they used to and already have four losses
Now just 5-4 on the season, the slim margins for the Kansas City Chiefs are totally disappearing. Kansas City has been in four one-score games this year, and they've lost all of them. The team went 15-2 in the regular season in 2024 and actually won all of their one-score games last year.
The regression was always going to come, and it's hit them hard. The Chiefs have numerous roster issues, as years of having draft picks at the bottom of each round are catching up to them. Their GM, Brett Veach, also hasn't really had a great record in free agency recently, and some of their key players that they rely on for big plays like Chris Jones and Travis Kelce are only getting older and less effective.
Kansas City just doesn't have the 'juice' that they used to have, and it's reflected in their results this year. Teams that can't win one-score games not only don't win divisions, but they don't make the playoffs. The Chiefs' five wins this year have been against New York (N), Detroit, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Washington, so they haven't really beaten a gauntlet of good teams.
If the Denver Broncos beat the Raiders and the Chiefs before their Week 12 bye, they enter the break at 9-2 and will have send the Chiefs back home with a 5-5 record. You'd have to wonder if the race for the AFC West would be about over at that point...