Don't look now, but both the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers are in a playoff spot. Could the two teams meet in the 2024 postseason? Currently, the Steelers it at 5-2 on the season and are second place in the AFC North behind the Baltimore Ravens, the hottest team in the NFL.
Denver sits at 4-3 on the season. In the current NFL Playoff Picture approaching Week 8, the Steelers occupy the 5th seed and the Broncos occupy the 7th seed. If the postseason began today, the two teams would not meet.
However, the Steelers have never finished with a losing record in the Mike Tomlin era, so there's reason to believe that they'll not only finish with a winning record in 2024, but perhaps also make the postseason, and with the AFC not being nearly as strong this year as some thought, there is an avenue where the Broncos make the postseason as well.
Could the Broncos and Steelers face each other in the NFL playoffs?
Yep, they sure can.
Could the Broncos see their old QB in the postseason?
It's not likely that Denver wins the AFC West this year, so their shot at the playoffs may have to come via a Wild Card seed. For the Steelers, they're more likely to win the AFC North than Denver is to win their own division. Winning a division in the NFL does guarantee a team one of the top four seeds in the playoffs and a home playoff game.
If you ask me, the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Houston Texans will win their own divisions in 2024 and are all better than the Pittsburgh Steelers. This could push the Steelers down to the no. 4 seed in the AFC, which is the last seed for the division winners.
The tiebreaking procedures for division winners is first decided by the head-to-head games, and then decided by the record within the division, so the Steelers would need to either sweep Baltimore or finish with a better divisional record and also have the same record or better to win the AFC North.
The Steelers could get the fourth seed in the playoffs, and in order to play the Denver Broncos, Denver would have to get the fifth seed, which would see the two teams face off in the Wild Card round. When you look at the Broncos' schedule, they still have games coming up against teams like the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Los Angeles Chargers.
There is a legitimate path for Denver to notch 10 wins this year, and it could be enough for them to capture the fifth seed in the AFC. Heck, the Steelers could even find themselves in the third seed in the AFC depending on how the rest of the season goes.
The Broncos would have to finish in the sixth seed to see Pittsburgh in the first round.
You see, while the seeding would have to work out quite well, there is a path forward for not only Pittsburgh and Denver to make the playoffs, but also seeing the two teams play each other when the postseason rolls around. Could the Denver Broncos see Russell Wilson in the NFL playoffs?