The Denver Broncos ride their 11-game winning streak into a Week 16 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Denver currently slots in as the No. 1 seed in the American Football Conference and hold the tiebreaker over the No. 2 seed New England Patriots with three games remaining in the regular season.
ESPN’s Seth Walder simulated the rest of the regular season and the playoffs, so lets break down how the rest of the year could play out for the Broncos and the AFC West according to this mock-finish.
The Las Vegas Raiders are projected to lose out the remainder of their schedule with losses to the Houston Texans, New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs, finishing 2-15 and securing the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft.
The Kansas City Chiefs are projected to finish 7-10, losing to the Tennessee Titans and Broncos before closing out the season with a win over the Raiders in Patrick Mahomes’ absence.
The Los Angeles Chargers are predicted to defeat the Dallas Cowboys but end the regular season with two losses to the Houston Texans and Broncos, however the Chargers will sneak into the playoffs as the final wild-card team at 11-6.
According to the simulation, the Broncos will win out against the Jaguars, Chiefs and Chargers to secure the No. 1 seed and first-round bye with a 15-2 record.
“Denver took care of business,” Walder wrote Thursday. “It entered Week 16 in the driver's seat for the top seed but still needed to get wins, including over another contender for the No. 1 seed in the Jaguars. The Broncos simply won out, beating the Jags, the Chiefs and the Chargers in successive fashion to finish two games ahead of the No. 2-seeded Patriots. Denver entered the playoffs on fire, with 14 straight wins.”
The simulation suggests that the Broncos move on after their first-round bye, defeating the Jaguars 28-22 in the AFC Divisional Round. They advance to the AFC Championship Round, where the Patriots defense stifles Denver’s offense. The Patriots advance to the Super Bowl with a 10-7 win over the Broncos.
The simulation has the Los Angeles Rams defeating the Patriots in a thrilling Super Bowl matchup.
Broncos fans obviously want their team to make it to the Super Bowl and win it, but many would probably be okay with an AFC Championship appearance in quarterback Bo Nix’s second year in the National Football League.