The Denver Broncos are playing in a high-stakes game in Week 18 of the 2024-25 NFL season. In fact, the stakes don't get any higher than this: Win, you're in.
The Broncos haven't made the playoffs since the 2015 season when they ended up winning Super Bowl 50. Back in those times, it was a joy and pleasure to have Jim Nantz and (at the time) Phil Simms calling Broncos games. The Broncos were routinely the CBS game of the week thanks to Peyton Manning and their legendary defense, and for four or five years, I don't know that any announcer was more familiar with the Broncos than Nantz.
Over the last seven years, it's been the opposite. Nantz has been joined in the booth by former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and the duo of Nantz and Romo is undoubtedly the "A team" for CBS. The Broncos haven't been good enough to get the "A team" all that much in recent years, and frankly, they've been kind of "cursed" with Nantz and Romo on the call in recent years.
Well, Nantz and Romo are coming to Denver to call the team's Week 18 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. The stakes couldn't be higher, and the Broncos have to not only end their playoff drought, but they will have to do so while also bucking their recent (ugly) trend in the rare occasions where Nantz and Romo have called their games.
Broncos need to end very odd Jim Nantz/Tony Romo streak in Week 18
The last time Nantz and Romo called a Broncos game was when the Broncos faced off against the Ravens in Baltimore earlier this season. We all saw how that one went as the Ravens cruised to a 41-10 victory over Denver.
Believe it or not, the Broncos hadn't seen Nantz and Romo for over a year before that. The last game they called for the Broncos prior to this year's game against the Ravens was back in 2022 on Christmas Day against the Los Angeles Rams. That game ended in a 51-14 blowout in favor of the Rams.
Nantz and Romo haven't even been to Denver since 2018, and to be fair, the Broncos did win that game. But that was over six years ago. The Broncos are slowly crawling their way back into true relevance in the NFL these days and the presence of Nantz and Romo this weekend is the latest evidence of that.
We've seen the Broncos flexed into prime viewing slots at times this year, including being the first team flexed from Sunday to Thursday in the middle of a season. We saw the NFL prioritize the Denver game in the prime Saturday slot against the Bengals this past weekend. Now, they're getting the top CBS crew for Week 18, a win-and-in contest against the Kansas City Chiefs.
And unlike the last two matchups Nantz and Romo have called, maybe we actually see the team show up for this game and do a little something.