The 2025 NFL schedule is out, and the Denver Broncos now know what their path to potential back-to-back postseason berths looks like.
The Broncos were able to punch their first playoff ticket since 2015 in Week 18 of last season with a home game against AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs, but at that point in the year, the Chiefs were resting their starters, having already clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Bo Nix and the Broncos stomped the now three-time reigning AFC champions by a score of 38-0, giving them a 10-7 record and the No. 7 seed in the AFC over a Cincinnati Bengals team that would have had the head-to-head tiebreakers over Denver, had the two teams both finished 9-8.
Unfortunately for Denver fans, this year's schedule was not as kind to them as it pertains to their rivals in red.
Broncos get screwed with Chiefs home game placement
Andy Reid is 30-4 (22-4 in the regular season) as a head coach coming off of a bye week, and the Broncos are set to host the Chiefs, who actually haven't beaten them at Mile High since 2022, the week after the Chiefs' bye week.
The Chiefs have off for Week 10, and this rivalry game is scheduled to take place in Week 11 on Sunday, November 16. Denver's bye week is Week 12.
Given the fact that the 2023 season marked the first time since 2015 that the Broncos had beaten the Chiefs at all, bringing an end to a 15-game post-Peyton Manning era losing streak, the fact that they are now going for three in a row at home over the Chiefs, starters out or not, is pretty impressive.
But that three-peat just got a whole lot tougher.
There is a small silver lining here. Reid's record after a bye week is 9-3 with the Chiefs (14-3 including the playoffs). Sure, it's impressive, but this record is fairly representative of the Chiefs' overall record during the Patrick Mahomes era.
So maybe, just maybe, that incredible bye week trend isn't really anything special anymore, and the Broncos can do what they've done the past two years.
You can pretty much forget about the Chiefs resting their starters this time around, however.
The other Broncos-Chiefs matchup is scheduled to take place in Week 17 on Christmas Day at Arrowhead.