The Denver Broncos entered this season with no shortage of question marks. How would a team with a rookie quarterback fare in a difficult division owned by the Kansas City Chiefs?
The Broncos have exceeded expectations, and Bo Nix’s progress throughout his rookie season makes this a success. However, the ending will be bitter if Denver can’t clinch a playoff spot that seemed like a lock just two weeks ago.
What did the Broncos need to ensure they don’t extend their playoff drought to a ninth straight season?
What Is the Denver Broncos’ Current Playoff Picture?
Denver’s scenario was extremely simple: beat the Kansas City Chiefs without many of their star players and the Broncos make the playoffs for the first time since the 2015 season. That is exactly what they did, and did in impressive fashion 38-0.
The Broncos had only beaten the Chiefs once in their previous 18 meetings. But, this wasn’t the same Kansas City Chiefs team. Notable Chiefs labeled out for Sunday’s game included Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones, Trent McDuffie, Jawaan Taylor, Isiah Pacheco, George Karlaftis, Justin Reid, and Nick Bolton.
The Broncos couldn’t rise higher than the No. 7 seed. Denver lost to Pittsburgh back in Week 2 and went 0-2 against the Chargers as well, so both those teams own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Regardless, they now head into the playoffs with rookie QB Bo Nix playing some very good football. Nix has 10 games with at least two touchdown passes this season and joined Justin Herbert (2020 with the Los Angeles Chargers) as the only rookies with 10 such games all-time.
The Broncos QB had his second game this season with 300 pass yards and four pass TD (also did this in Week 11 vs. the Falcons). He’s the second rookie with multiple games of this kind in NFL history, along with 2019 Daniel Jones.
Nix also made NFL history as the first QB with 3+ TD passes and 75% complete in four games as a rookie. He also matched the franchise record for such games in a season (Peyton Manning had four such games in both 2012 and 2013).
To simulate the postseason, head over to PFN’s free NFL Playoff Predictor to see how each team can continue onto their path to the Super Bowl.