The Denver Broncos are now 13-3 on the season after a huge win over the Kansas City Chiefs in week 17. The team will now head back to Denver, recover, rest, and watch some football over the weekend, as this team clinches the AFC West title with a LA Chargers' loss to the Houston Texans on Saturday.
The Broncos still control their own destiny if the Chargers, win, though, as the team could simply beat LA in Week 17 and clinch the division and clinch the no. 1 overall seed in the AFC. As we all know at this point, the top seed in the AFC gets the Broncos the first-round by and homefield advantage.
At the end of the day, wins are wins, and they come in all different shapes and sizes. They aren't always pretty, either, and that's OK. The NFL is filled top to bottom with parity and with teams that are desperate for wins. Sean Payton talked with the media after the game and said as much.
It does not have to be ascetically pleasing at all, and that describes the 2025 Denver Broncos
It's a short but hugely important sentence from Sean Payton:
Sean Payton: "It doesn't have to be ascetically pleasing to be effective"
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) December 26, 2025
How many of the Broncos' wins this year have truly been an objectively pleasing game from start to finish? Honestly, I can count two - the win over the Cincinnati Bengals that got this winning streak started, and the win over the Dallas Cowboys about a month later.
But that's really it - Denver has needed a ton of second-half and fourth quarter comebacks. That happens in the NFL sometimes, and I believe that many of us got used to all the double-digit wins this team had in the 2024 NFL Season. The way Denver has won in 2025 is more how teams usually win in the NFL.
Denver is now one win away from tying their all-time franchise record, and if they do win in Week 18 over the Los Angeles Chargers, it's likely that the result is going to be another close game...