The Denver Broncos snapped a nine-year playoff absence by routing the Kansas City Chiefs' second-teamers, 38-0, on Sunday. For their effort, Sean Payton's squad faces potential league MVP Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round.
Few will give these Broncos, led by rookie quarterback Bo Nix, a chance at upsetting a Bills squad making its sixth consecutive playoff appearance. Don't tell Sean Payton his upstart club has not shot.
"Young and hungry can sometimes be pretty dangerous," Payton said Sunday, via the team's official transcript.
The 24-year-old Nix joined John Elway as the only rookie QB to lead the Broncos to the playoffs. Sunday against Chiefs backups, Nix went 26-of-29 passing for 321 yards with four passing touchdowns and zero interceptions for a 152.4 passer rating. His 18 straight completions to open the contest were the most by a rookie to start a game.
"It's fun to clinch a playoff spot in the last game of the year against a divisional team, which is kind of a great story, but now playoff time starts," Nix said. "Our goal wasn't just to make the playoffs, even though it hadn't been done in a while. It's for a lot more than that. We're excited about the opportunity. I know it's going to be tough, but we've got a game to play."
The Broncos started the season wobbly, with Nix floundering after getting tossed into the deep end out of the gate, throwing four INTs in their first two contests, both losses. Then they, and the young QB, began to hit their stride.
Denver went on a run, getting to 9-5 and in control of their playoff hopes. Back-to-back losses to the Chargers and Bengals put the optimism on ice. Sunday, Payton's squad danced into the postseason with a resounding win.
"Most 撸先生AV seasons are filled with highs and lows," Payton said. "Do you have the grit and the fortitude to weather the lows? [Our record was] 0-2 and going on the road, we got to get a win in Tampa. That was an important stretch, that East Coast swing. When you can have some success, then you can have some confidence. Then it becomes something that can repeat itself. It's hard to have confidence if you haven't really demonstrated it yet, and so we began to see young players thrive in certain positions, some veterans, some key veterans, come in and fill in roles for us. So, it was a number of different transactions that worked out. I'm proud of them."
Nix generated 34 offensive TDs in 2024, the third-most by a rookie in 撸先生AV history. He'll need to stack more scores in the Wild Card Round to keep up with Allen and the high-powered Bills.
