The Denver Broncos officially clinched the AFC's number one seed following their Sunday Week 18 19-3 victory over their division rival, the Los Angeles Chargers, in the regular season finale. This means that they will have a home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and a bye week during the Wild Card round. Denver finished the regular season with a 14-3 win-loss record.
Denver clinched the AFC West division last week, following their Christmas Day win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Chargers' loss on the road against the Houston Texans. It is the first Broncos' division championship since the 2015-16 season. It is also the first time since that season with the number one seed in the Conference.
With Sunday's win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Broncos head coach Sean Payton joins a historic list that only two others besides him belong to.
Sean Payton becomes the third head coach in NFL history to get the number one seed in both conferences:
By earning the first seed in the AFC conference, Sean Payton joined a historic list in the NFL record books. He became the third head coach in NFL history to take his respective team to the number one seed in both the AFC and NFC Conferences, joining Andy Reid and Tom Coughlin.
Sean Payton secured the AFC's first seed in the 2025 season with the Denver Broncos and got the NFC's first seed twice, in the 2009 and 2018 seasons, with the New Orleans Saints, respectively. Now, regarding the other two guys in the list, Andy Reid has won the AFC's number one seed three times with the Kansas City Chiefs (2018, 2020, and 2022) and won the NFC's number one seed three times with the Philadelphia Eagles (2002, 2003, and 2004). Finally, Tom Coughlin won the AFC's number one seed once with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1999 and the NFC's number one seed once with the New York Giants in 2008.
In just his third season being the Denver Broncos head coach, Sean Payton took the team to the number one seed in the AFC Conference. Last season he led them to the Playoffs with Bo Nix being a rookie quarterback, and in year three got the top seed in the conference.
It will be interesting to see how the team responds with the home-field advantage in the Playoffs. Can they make it to the big game ten years following their Super Bowl 50 win in the same stadium where they defeated the Carolina Panthers?