Broncos' first Week 18 injury report leaves no excuses for must-win game

The Denver Broncos have yet again rolled out another stellar injury report approaching their massive, must-win Week 18 game. For the second year in a row, the Denver Broncos have avoided catastrophic injuries and have rolled out a very healthy roster.

It's a testament to the new training/recovery staff that were brought in at the beginning of the Sean Payton era. In Week 18, the Broncos are playing the (mostly) backups of the Kansas City Chiefs, who have nothing to play for and do not want to risk injury.

Ahead of the game, the Broncos released their first injury report on Wednesday:

The team did not have a single player as 'DNP' due to injury - backup tackle Frank Crum was a DNP on Wednesday due to an illness, and starting guard Ben Powers was a DNP for rest purposes. Stud defensive end Zach Allen also got a bit of a rest day, so he was limited, and all of Tyler Badie, Nik Bonitto, and Justin Strnad were full with their injuries.

Below is the Kansas City Chiefs' Wednesday injury report:

The Chiefs have a ton of notable players on their injury report, and while it's not clear which players will suit up and be inactive, one thing I believe I can say with confidence is that any semi-notable player on the Chiefs who is dealing with some sort of injury will not play. Kansas City simply cannot make all 22 of their starters inactive - that is roster-wise, impossible.

For that reason, many of their starters will be active, but may be 'demoted' to a second or third-string role. However, with that said, some of their starters will also be gameday inactives, so they won't even be a third-string player. There isn't a cut-and-dry way to rest starters, and I am sure Chiefs' head coach Andy Reid is currently trying to figure out how he wants to go about this.

But the Denver Broncos do again appear to be pretty healthy approaching, yet again, the biggest game of the post-Super Bowl 50 era. A win clinches them a spot in the postseason, no matter what the Cincinnati Bengals or Miami Dolphins do. A Broncos' loss and a win by either the Bengals or Dolphins gets one of them in.

If all three teams lose or tie, Denver gets in. The team has no excuses - they are playing backup players and are coming into this game very healthy.