For the first time since the 2015 NFL season, the Denver Broncos won the AFC West and earned both a first-round bye and homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
A decade ago, they turned that into the franchise’s third Super Bowl championship, and with the AFC again set to run through Denver, hopes are a Mile High that they will be able secure a fourth.
Their first playoff game will either be scheduled to take place next Saturday (2:30 p.m. MST or 6:15 p.m. MST) or Sunday (1:00 p.m. MST or 4:30 p.m. MST). As for which day the NFL chooses, that will likely come down to who their opponent is, and for two key reasons.
Will Denver play on Saturday or Sunday?
First and foremost, the NFL is simply not going to place the winner of Monday night’s Wild Card game into a Saturday time slot. It has never happened since the NFL added the Monday night first-round matchup back in 2021, and it’s unlikely to happen this time around either.
Monday night's game is an AFC game which is set to feature the No. 5 seed Houston Texans and the No. 4 seed Pittsburgh Steelers.
Secondly, the NFL traditionally likes having one AFC game and one NFC game on both the Saturday and Sunday of Divisional Round weekend. There is no reason to believe that will change this year.
So all things considered, if Denver’s Divisional Round opponent is Houston or Pittsburgh, the game will likely be scheduled for next Sunday.
The only way that will happen, however, is if both the No. 2 seed New England Patriots and the No. 3 seed Jacksonville Jaguars win this Sunday. That would send the winner of the Texans-Steelers game to Denver.
But if the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Chargers upset the Patriots, or if the No. 6 seed Buffalo Bills upset the Jaguars, then the Broncos would not play the winner of the Texans-Steelers game, and they would likely be scheduled to open up their postseason next Saturday instead.
A Chargers win would send them to Denver, while a Bills win would send them to Denver if the Chargers lose. So if the Broncos match up against the Chargers or the Bills next week, expect the game to be contested on Saturday, not Sunday.
But if the Patriots and Jaguars take care of business, locking the winner of the Texans-Steelers game into a trip to Empower Field, then expect that game to be contested on Sunday.
The Bills-Jaguars game is scheduled to take place this Sunday at 11:00 a.m. MST, while the Chargers-Patriots game is scheduled to take place at 6:00 p.m. MST that evening.
Of their four possible opponents for next weekend – the Texans, Steelers, Bills, and Chargers – the Broncos faced the Texans and Chargers during the regular season. They won in Houston, and they split their regular season series with AFC West rival Los Angeles, with each team winning at home.
Their most recent matchup against the Steelers came in the 2024 regular season and resulted in a loss at home. Their most recent matchup against the Bills came in a road Wild Card game 12 months ago and also resulted in a loss.