The final week of the regular season is set, and the Kansas City Chiefs, who hold the AFC’s top seed and have a bye week, play a meaningless game Sunday at Denver. If Kansas City wins, their AFC rival will likely miss the playoffs. So why not try to win the game even with backups?
The Denver Broncos currently hold the last playoff spot in the AFC. Since Week 16, they’ve needed a single victory to clinch a postseason spot. However, back-to-back losses against the Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals mean they must beat the Chiefs on Sunday afternoon to complete their turnaround and legitimize their franchise.
If they lose to the Chiefs, their season can only be viewed as a failed experiment with a decent but not ready-for-primetime quarterback in Bo Nix. He was the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year at one point, but he didn’t rise to the challenge when the talent level increased.
On Sunday, he’ll face some starters and backups on defense for the Kansas City Chiefs. Denver will need to win to lock down a playoff spot, so it will bring its A-game. However, if the Cincinnati Bengals lose to Pittsburgh on Saturday night and the New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, this game may not mean anything to Denver.
However, the Broncos and Jets play simultaneously in the late Sunday window, so they may be watching the scoreboard and attempting to defeat the Chiefs.
Kansas City isn’t going to lie down facing the Broncos. Carson Wentz will start, and he’s better than half the quarterbacks Denver faced this season. Remember, they stand 9-7 on the season and have no signature wins. They stand 1-5 versus playoff teams; their only win was the Tampa Bay Bucs in week three, but they haven’t clinched a playoff spot yet- so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Denver is a great story, and Bo Nix has undoubtedly shown more fire than any other Broncos quarterback since Peyton Manning retired. His story should have had a better ending had Sean Payton done a better coaching job on Saturday when facing the Bengals. His miscues in the fourth quarter and overtime directly impacted the loss.
As you know, I’m not a fan of Sean Payton, but he’s done a good job this season. The team has a tremendous defense that has hit the skids in its two-game losing streak, and the offense has carried the torch. Yet, they’ve benefited from one of the easiest schedules in the NFL this season.
To that point, Nix has crumbled in key situations this season, especially when the game is on the line against a more talented opposing roster.
Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid understands this game’s impact on the Broncos. Yet, he has one goal: remain healthy, rest his key starters, and call a vanilla offense that relies heavily on time of possession.
The Chiefs are 15-1, and they could, with four more wins, set the NFL record for most wins in one season with 19 if they run through the postseason and claim another Super Bowl. That’s not anything to the history of this franchise, which can lay claim they are the best franchise in NFL history.
I’m not sure that’s enough to push the envelope, but Carson Wentz also has something to prove. He should be a starter in 2025, and a big win knocking the Broncos out of the playoffs would be lovely NFL Cache in his quest to be a starter again.
