The Denver Broncos have one game left in the regular season before they will be considered one of the top teams to get to Super Bowl LX.
If the Broncos can defeat the Los Angeles Chargers — who will be resting several key players — on Sunday, they will earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The last time they did that was in 2015 and they went on to win Super Bowl 50 that year.
Knowing that any team looking to knock off the Broncos will have to do so at Empower Field at Mile High, the team has a good chance to go through the AFC side of the playoffs. But how will that road start? Looking at the remainder of the games in Week 18 and projecting how the Wild Card round of the playoffs will go, which team will be the first to come to Denver in January?
Predicted AFC playoffs- Wild Card round
Buffalo Bills defeat Baltimore Ravens
Houston Texans defeat Jacksonville Jaguars
New England Patriots defeat L.A. Chargers
The Broncos would face the lowest remaining seed of the teams that advanced past that first round, which would bring a tough matchup against the Texans.
Prediction: Broncos will face Texans in divisional playoff game
The Texans-Jaguars game, if it shapes up that way, would be the most difficult to predict in that opening slate of games. The two AFC South squads have been the hottest teams in the NFL and the Jaguars were the team that snapped the Broncos' 11-game winning streak.
Of all the teams on the AFC side, these may be the two that no one really wants to play. In this predicted scenario, it would be the Texans who would come to Denver.
With the way the Texans are playing, this would be a difficult matchup for the Broncos.
The Texans have won eight games in a row, dating back to November 2. The last team to beat them was the Broncos, but in that game, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud was knocked out of the game with a concussion after a hit from Broncos defensive back Kris Abrams-Draine. Davis Mills entered the game in place of Stroud and nearly pulled out the victory but the Broncos held on for an 18-15 win.
The Broncos were thought to have the best defense in the league for much of the season, but it's difficult to say that the Texans don't deserve that honor at this point. Their defense has been suffocating and if Stroud can make some plays on offense, they will be incredibly difficult to beat.
READ: Broncos' Week 18 injury report can be viewed in a very positive light
It will be interesting to see how things line up in the AFC but this is a distinct possibility for Broncos fans.
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