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  • Keeler: Broncos should spend Russell Wilson money on getting Bo Nix receivers without butterfingers

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    Say this for Sean Payton: He sure liked to spread the drops around.

    The Broncos were the only NFL team to place three players among the league’s top 15 in dropped passes during the regular season, per Pro-Football-Reference.com — wide receiver Courtland Sutton (eight), tight end Evan Engram (eight) and running back RJ Harvey (seven).

    No wonder a 15-4 record feels like such a Boverachievement, in retrospect.

    It’s going to be a beast to repeat if Payton and GM George Paton don’t add an experienced, proven wideout for Bo Nix in 2026. Or a big-time tight end. Better yet, both.

    What the heck. Russell Wilson is off the books, right? Paton is rolling into the offseason with diamond encrusted Walmart gift card in his wallet. Go nuts.

    “I think the position that this team, the position that we’re in, (we) have a win-now mentality,” Engram said Monday at Dove Valley as the Broncos cleaned out their lockers following a 10-7 loss to New England in the AFC Championship. “And there are some things that we can work with to even make our roster even better.

    “So, yeah — I have the utmost faith in the guys upstairs, all the decision-makers, the coach. They’ve done a great job since they’ve been here. They’ve built (a) championship team. Being able to add to that already, we’re in a great spot. We’ll be in a good spot for a while.”

    Yeah, but you’ve got to strike now. Nix is on a rookie contract through 2027. That time is going to fly by. Like the Nuggets with Jokic and Murray and the Avs with MacKinnon and Makar, this is the window. Right here. We going for this? Or not?

    “Obviously, we need some key players to come in and do what they need to do by getting points on the scoreboard,” veteran left tackle Garett Bolles noted Monday. “(We’ve) got a phenomenal defense. We have everything we need. We just need a couple more playmakers, and sky’s the limit for this team.”

    Almost everything. Nix can sling it with Sam Darnold all stinking day. What do the Super-Bowl-bound Seahawks have that the Broncos don’t? A bell cow tailback (Kenneth Walker) who has averaged 15 games per season over his career. And a No. 1 wideout (Jaxson Smith-Njigba) who’s putting up seven catches and 86 receiving yards per game this postseason.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Patriots QB Drake Maye rushes past Broncos to send New England to 12th Super Bowl

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    Third down, 5 yards to go, 2 minutes left in the game, near-blizzard raging. And what did New England quarterback Drake Maye do?

    He skated for 7 yards and a game-clinching first down in the Patriots’ 10-7 victory in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at Empower Field at Mile High.

    In a game that ended with a 7-degree wind chill, the Patriots snowplowed their way to their 12th Super Bowl on a handful of crucial plays, many of them by Maye. He broke out of the pocket for six first downs, including a fourth-down play.

    “Those long legs came in handy,” Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs said. “He was running around, stiff-arming guys. He was making plays at a high level. He was being smart. I think the biggest thing in a game like this is just being smart and not turning the ball over.”

    Jarrett Stidham’s two critical turnovers doom Broncos in AFC Championship defeat to Patriots

    The Patriots will now play the winner of Sunday night’s NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.

    Maye completed just 10 of 21 passes for 86 yards, and he was sacked five times for 21 yards. But he carried the ball 10 times for 65 yards and ran for the Patriots’ only touchdown — a 6-yard sprint in the second quarter after the Patriots recovered a fumble by Denver QB Jarrett Stidham.

    “It wasn’t ideal,” Maye said of the conditions. “But our defense, they’ve been stepping up all playoffs. We’re going to play better. But man, I’m just so proud of this team.”

    Compare what Maye did to what the Broncos couldn’t do. They rushed for just 79 yards as a team and saw their season slip-slide away when they failed to get anything going in the second half.

    “Tip our hats to New England,” Denver coach Sean Payton said. “It was a hard-fought game. We weren’t able to get it done, and it’s tough, especially in this game.”

    A contingent of Patriots fans in Denver shouted “MVP! MVP!” when Maye took hold of the Lamar Hunt Trophy after the game.

    “I was just trying to control the football,”  Maye said. “What an atmosphere out here. We battled the elements. Love this team. How about the defense? I love each and every one of them, man. Pats are back, baby.”

    The game’s momentum changed with New England’s first drive of the second half. The Patriots ground out 64 yards on 16 plays and took 9:31 off the clock. The key play was Mayes’ 28-yard scramble on third-and-9. The drive ended with a 23-yard field goal by Andy Borregalles, which turned out to be the game-winner.

    “Today was just another example of when things kind of change and unfold, our ability to adjust things,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “We did enough things in tough conditions to win the football game.

    “When we got that field goal, our defense took it to them, and if they can’t score, it was going to be hard to win the football game, obviously.”

    Regarding his quarterback, Vrabel said, “The great thing about Drake is his ability to extend plays. If it’s not there, he gains chunks. He’s done that most of the year.”

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    Patrick Saunders

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  • Broncos-Patriots scouting report: How will Sean Payton, Jarrett Stidham handle tricky New England defense?

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    Patriots (16-3) at Broncos (15-3)

    When: 1 p.m. Sunday

    Where: Empower Field at Mile High

    TV: KCNC-4

    Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM

    Broncos-Patriots series: There’s some great, not-so-ancient playoff history here, between two franchises that will forever be tied to the names Manning and Brady. The last time Denver and New England faced off in the playoffs was the AFC title game after the 2015 season, as a fading Peyton Manning mustered just enough — 176 yards and two touchdowns — to put the Patriots away 20-18. Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby picked off a 2-point conversion try from Tom Brady to Julian Edelman to seal the win. Denver’s also 27-23 in all-time regular-season matchups against the Patriots.

    In the spotlight: Patriots defensive play-caller Zak Kuhr ‘keeps the dial spinning’

    Two weeks ago, after New England made Pro Bowler Justin Herbert look like a Pop Warner flameout in a 16-3 win over Los Angeles, Chargers players came up to linebacker Robert Spillane and told him they had “no clue” what coverage the Patriots were in all game. At least, by Spillane’s own admission.

    Now, the Chargers fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman a couple of days later, so that might’ve had something to do with it. But this is the evident genius of New England defensive play-caller Zak Kuhr.

    “He keeps the dial spinning,” Spillane said after New England’s wild-card win. “He keeps offenses guessing. All year, he’s been doing that.

    “For him just to be able to build those packages throughout the week, our back-end players to know how to disguise the different defenses, really keeps quarterbacks guessing,” the linebacker continued a few words later.

    Enter Jarrett Stidham, a quarterback with four career NFL starts who has Patriots defenders now guessing as to what exactly he’s capable of.

    “Nothing,” said New England defensive tackle Milton Williams in the Patriots’ locker room this week, when asked what he knew about Stidham. “Nothing. I ain’t gonna lie, nothing. We’re gonna watch the tape on him and figure out what he like to do, but, they didn’t like him over Bo, so.”

    Shrug.

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    Luca Evans

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  • Keeler: How can Broncos’ Jarrett Stidham beat Patriots? Gary Kubiak, Bubby Brister see a path

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    Eight no mountain high enough.

    “Oh shoot, I mean, he knows what he’s doing,” Gary Kubiak said of quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who’s slated to start Sunday’s AFC championship against New England. “He’s been preparing with Sean (Payton), he’s been preparing with Bo (Nix), each and every day.

    “I just think, as a coach, and I’m sure Sean (and Bo) have done that, just remind the kid what kind of team he’s on.”

    Funny how history rhymes, isn’t it? Kubiak wore No. 8 as John Elway’s understudy for almost a decade. Stidham now sports that same 8, Kubiak’s old number, as Nix’s relief, one cruel ankle twist away from the throne, over the last two seasons.

    Speaking as one No. 8 to another, our man Kubes, who coached the Broncos to the franchise’s last Super Bowl win a decade ago, offered Stidham eight simple words of advice.

    “Just get in there,” the ex-Broncos backup QB told me by phone earlier this week, “and do your job.”

    Handed the keys to a stock car in the middle of the race? Thrust into the driver’s seat on short notice? Asked to drive your team to the Super Bowl? Kubes has been there.

    Kubiak was Elway’s stand-in from 1983-91, the Cal Naughton, Jr. to John’s Ricky Bobby, a couple of buds shaking and baking all over the AFC West. While Elway was forging one of the great QB careers in NFL history, years of preparing and processing alongside No. 7 molded Kubiak into a championship coach.

    “Sometimes, you’ve got stretches where you may go a year or two years (of not playing),” Kubiak said. “Or you may get out there in a crazy spot.”

    Kubes landed one of the absolute craziest, right at the very end. He was carrying the clipboard for Elway at the ’91-’92 AFC Championship Game in Buffalo when the Broncos icon had to leave the game with a deep bruise in his right thigh.

    Kubiak had already made up his mind before the playoffs that the 1991 season would be his last, that he would retire whenever the ride came to an end.

    “And all of a sudden, there I am in the game,” the former Broncos signal-caller recalled. “It was kind of ironic for me, (spending) all those years backing up John, here I am playing in the AFC Championship Game and had a really good chance to win.”

    Gary literally went into that contest cold. Although he does remember it being surprisingly warm for upstate New York in mid-January.

    “It was an unseasonable 32 degrees in Buffalo,”  he laughed. “I couldn’t have played if it was cold. My back was too bad. I’m glad the Good Lord gave me a game I could play in.”

    Kubes played admirably, too. No. 8 completed 11 of 12 throws for 136 yards. His touchdown run with 1:46 left got the Broncos to within 10-6 before the extra point.

    Denver recovered the ensuing onside kick, but, alas, on the next play, Steve Sewell fumbled the ball back to Buffalo. Three missed field goals at Rich Stadium proved fatal. The Broncos ultimately fell, 10-7.

    “Our defense was really good (in ’91) — a lot like this Broncos team,” Kubiak said. “We were in a lot of low-scoring games. We missed a few plays in the second half. We had ourselves in a position there at the end and unfortunately, the ballgame got away from us … we had our opportunity, but it just didn’t end the right way.”

    How can this one end better? Kubiak likes that Payton doubled down on Stidham publicly, and almost immediately, after getting the worst injury news imaginable.

    “I used to tell my teams, when you’re a coach, you’re going to go through some QB issues and lose a QB,” Kubiak explained. “And I used to always remind guys that when you start to worry about what’s going on at other spots on the team, then you don’t take care of your job. Just stay focused on your job, what you do. ‘We’ve got Stiddy here, he’s going to be ready to play.’ You have to stay focused and (then do) what you have to do to help him out.”

    Bubby Brister went 4-0 as Elway’s No. 2 in the fall of 1998, keeping things afloat as the Broncos eventually repeated as Super Bowl champions. Brister told me Tuesday that he thinks 90% of the battle for Stiddy, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, will be half mental.

    “I believe Jarrett knows he can do the job,” Brister said via text. “He also knows he has a great team and staff around him. Not to mention Sean Payton is in his ear, one of the best ever at calling plays.

    “To top it off, (there’s a) big advantage playing at home with our awesome fans and at Mile High. Just go play! Just go do your job.”

    Even if that means jumping on a moving train. Sportradar says Stidham is only the seventh NFL QB since 1950 to start a playoff game during a season in which he never started once.

    The last three guys who’ve been thrust into that position since 2000 — Joe Webb (Minnesota, 2012), Connor Cook (Oakland, 2016) and Taylor Heinicke (Washington, 2020) — went 0-3. Their average stat line? 216 passing yards, one passing TD, two picks.

    Their teams scored 10 points, 14 points and 23 points, respectively. That’s about 16 per game. Which is asking an awful, awful lot of your defense. Even one as good as Vance Joseph’s.

    “He’ll be all right,” Kubiak said of Stidham. “The thing I always go back to is, it’s all about the team.

    “Denver’s got a great football team. Stidham, that’s Sean’s hand-picked guy. He trusts him. And he’s on a great football team. It’ll be fun to watch the young man. He’ll do a great job.”

    Eight no valley low enough. And just because Frank Reich was a leprechaun doesn’t mean you can’t get lucky all over again.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • How Broncos’ Marvin Mims Jr. roasting Pat Surtain II in practice led to go-ahead TD vs. Bills

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    Before the Broncos even knew they’d be playing Buffalo in the AFC divisional round, Sean Payton decided to pull a play off the shelf and put it into Denver’s postseason plans.

    During the team’s OTA-style practices on Jan. 9 and 10, Payton emphasized good-on-good work.

    The No. 1 offense worked against the No. 1 defense. No contact, of course, but Payton and his staff put as much as possible into making the situations competitive.

    During one of those practices, receiver Marvin Mims Jr. ran a double-move against reigning defensive player of the year Pat Surtain II and, as Payton tells it, roasted him.

    Parker Gabriel’s 7 Thoughts after Broncos’ wild OT win vs. Bills, including why Sean Payton trusts Jarrett Stidham

    “We just hadn’t called that play in a while and it looked so good in our joint practice, I was like, ‘Man, that’s got to go to the call sheet,’” Payton said Sunday morning after the Broncos beat Buffalo, 33-30 in overtime, to advance to the AFC Championship Game.

    Part of the Broncos’ normal team meeting the night before a game is to go through what Payton calls the touchdown reel. It’s a compilation of the plays he thinks players have a chance to score on the next day.

    Payton had a message for Mims.

    “When we did our video the night before and I put the practice clip up, I said, ‘You’re beating the No. 1 corner in the world,’” Payton recalled. “‘I don’t care who they put over there in the game tomorrow. We’re running this play.’”

    The moment arrived in the final 61 seconds of regulation.

    Mims motioned from the right slot to outside on the left.

    He closed the gap to Buffalo corner Dane Jackson, stuttered and took off up the field. Jackson did a fairly good job sticking with him, but Mims pulled away by just enough and left space to allow Nix to put the ball to his outside along the sideline.

    The 26-yard touchdown put the Broncos momentarily in front with 55 seconds to go.

    “There’s a few times I’ll say to the (coaches) in the booth, ‘guys, we can’t finish this game with me not having called that play,’” Payton said. “That was one of those plays. We cannot finish this game with me not having called that play.”

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • PHOTOS: Denver Broncos outlast Buffalo Bills 33-30 in AFC Divisional Round

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Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos talks to Josh Allen (17) of the Buffalo Bills after the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

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AAron Ontiveroz, Timothy Hurst

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  • Renck: Broncos need to run Jaleel McLaughlin to stop critics from running their mouths

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    Three weeks. That is all it took for the country to turn on the Broncos again. They are corn to a garden. The worst seed ever.

    Failing to score more than 20 points in three straight games to end the season was all America’s armchair quarterbacks and well-paid analysts needed.

    The offensive impotence is catnip for critics.

    So, it is no wonder that the AFC’s top dog is an underdog. Fine.

    There is a way to win every game, as Sean Payton reminds us weekly, and the path Saturday involves mud flaps, not a cockpit.

    The Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse has hidden its secret long enough.

    Want to beat the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round? Run Jaleel McLaughlin. Trust him. Treat him like a weapon, not a diversion.

    The idea that the outcome of the Broncos’ biggest game in a decade hinges on a running back who has been inactive for nine weeks is ridiculous. You are probably laughing at this premise. Cackling at the idea that Payton will actually lean on the ground attack.

    But Payton has made a career of pushing the right buttons and finding answers. And this one is staring at him from inside the fieldhouse walls, where McLaughlin can often be found after practice getting in extra reps to stay sharp.

    All Payton needs to do is follow the script written by Gary Kubiak, the last Broncos coach to win a playoff game.

    As Denver clumsily reached the end of the 2015 season, creating doubts about reaching the Super Bowl, Kubiak spent part of his day checking video from Peyton Manning’s workouts with receiver Jordan “Sunshine” Taylor inside the fieldhouse as he recovered from a plantar fasciitis injury.

    Kubiak refused to close the door on Manning returning. And Manning was tired of waiting. At one point, he flipped off the cameras, knowing Kubiak would see it. Kubiak finally took the suggestion, turning to Manning in the second half of the season finale, a move that triggered a Super Bowl 50 victory.

    McLaughlin does not possess the gravitas to give his coach the middle finger. And he is not the key to a championship run. But he is the key to winning this game.

    You see, backs have run through the Bills like Taco Bell after a night on Pearl Street. Only the 2006 Indianapolis Colts allowed more than 5 yards per rush and won the Super Bowl, per CBS Sports. The Bills have yielded 5.2 in 18 games. It is their fatal flaw.

    McLaughlin can expose it. His entire football journey has built up to this moment. He never had a backup plan. He slept in a car for a time growing up. He refused to give up on his dream. His resilience helped him make the roster three years ago as an undrafted free agent.

    This is different. He can go from a feel-good story to the headliner.

    Look, this might backfire. But he is the best option to exploit the Bills, even if injured defensive lineman Ed Oliver returns. The trade deadline long ago passed, and Denver declined to deal for Breece Hall.

    Then J.K. Dobbins got hurt, and R.J. Harvey has not filled his cleats. Forget attacking downhill, Harvey has been going downhill. He has averaged 3.36 yards per carry over the past three games on 36 carries, and if you subtract his 38-yard touchdown against the Jaguars, it shrinks to 2.37.

    Compare that to McLaughlin, who has 118 yards on 18 carries during the same stretch. That is 63 percent of his season total, and 6.56 a pop.

    “He outworks just about everybody in the building,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “It’s not a shock to anybody that, when his opportunity came, he did a great job with it.”

    So, lean on McLaughlin and call more designed runs for Bo Nix (102 rushing yards since Dec. 21).

    Who says no? Payton?

    Not so sure. Not this time. He appears to have learned his lesson from abandoning the run last year at Buffalo, from turtling against the Chiefs and Chargers.

    It was encouraging to hear Payton’s tone publicly last Friday when asked if he held stuff back over the final two weeks. He made no excuses. Used zero qualifiers. Made it clear that the Broncos have to execute better and become more explosive.

    If Payton is not stubborn, the Broncos will win because of the run game in general and McLaughlin specifically.

    Don’t believe it?

    The Jaguars are watching this weekend because they simply did not run the ball enough. They were gashing the Bills on the ground, and inexplicably finished with 30 passes and 23 carries. They posted 154 yards rushing, and Liam “Keep Your Head Up” Coen decided to keep putting the ball in the air.

    If Payton is similarly hard-headed with Nix, the Broncos will follow the Jaguars to the emergency exit.

    My insistence on running is rooted in winning.

    The best way to neutralize Josh Allen is to play keep away. If the Broncos produce long drives and impose their will upfront, it will create urgency from the Bills.

    We all know Josh Allen is not going to play like Woody Allen. It is safe to assume the Broncos are going to struggle at times as Allen bullies his way for yards or finds his tight ends and running backs for easy completions. How Denver’s defense performs in the red zone will be critical.

    But the offense has to do its part.

    It won’t be easy. It never is with this group. The Broncos have only reached the red zone five times in the last three games, scoring two touchdowns, and only once in a goal-to-go situation.

    That won’t cut it on Saturday.

    Let McLaughlin provide the body shots. And Harvey or Nix, the haymaker (the Bills have allowed eight touchdown runs of 30-plus yards, most in a season in NFL history).

    McLaughlin was already known for rolling up his sleeves and breaking a sweat before the sun wakes. But he added night duty to stay sharp, to be ready, when he lost his role on game day as the fourth running back in the three-man rotation of Dobbins, Harvey and Tyler Badie.

    “It was a real challenge just because I am so competitive,” McLaughlin said. “But I just had to trust and believe in what coach Payton was telling me.”

    Everyone is running their mouths again. All the Broncos need to do is run the ball with McLaughlin to shut them up.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Broncos QB coach Davis Webb explains where he’s seen Bo Nix grow in Year 2

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    Steve Spagnuolo tried to throw a changeup on a Christmas night third-and-6.

    Bo Nix didn’t hesitate.

    The Broncos this season saw more zone coverage from opposing defenses than any team in the NFL, according to Sumer Sports data.

    The undermanned Chiefs delivered a heavy diet in Week 17.

    “We saw a ton of zone coverage, soft zone,” Denver coach Sean Payton said after. “They were going to force us to rope-a-dope a little bit.”

    Do Broncos own advantage over Bills because of week off?

    Kansas City did just that and kept the Broncos close throughout the game.

    On this third down, though, Spagnuolo, the Chiefs’ veteran defensive coordinator, brought pressure and played man coverage behind it.

    Nix, operating out of the gun, started a half roll to the right. Kansas City’s pressure overloaded from his left and tight end Adam Trautman did a good job pushing defensive lineman Charles Omenihu up the field on the right side.

    Nix never even hit the top of his drop. He recognized the coverage and the gaping ‘B’ gap in front of him, bailed out of his drop and took off for 14 yards.

    If Nix stepped through an ankle tackle by George Karlaftis, he’d have broken a huge gain and perhaps even a 55-yard touchdown.

    “He saw it, he shot his shot and it worked out really good,” Denver quarterbacks coach Davis Webb told The Post recently.

    Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) in the first half against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday, December 25, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    Rhythm, recognition and calmer feet

    Nix is through two regular seasons now as a starter. He’s played 35 NFL games, including last year’s wild-card loss to Buffalo.

    His Year 2 numbers look, on the whole, a lot like his Year 1 numbers. He didn’t make the leap into the stratosphere. Completion percentage? Slightly down. Quarterback rating? Same. Estimated points added per drop back? Slightly up. So on and so forth.

    Stats, of course, don’t tell the entire story of Nix’s 2025 season. His coaches saw improvement, particularly in the second half of the season, after some weeks of considerable struggle.

    Now, at the helm of a 14-3 team and two home postseason wins from the Super Bowl, Nix is tasked with trying to guide the Broncos on a run toward a world championship.

    How is he, in particular, better equipped to do so than a year ago?

    “I think the offense as a whole has found a decent rhythm in regards to how we want to play it, run and pass,” Webb said. “He’s done a good job, really the last seven or eight weeks, of really controlling the line of scrimmage. In and out of the huddle, operation, protections.

    “He’s made a jump in recognition.”

    Also on the list: calmer feet and a more decisive approach for when to take off and run. They’re all related and intertwined. The third down against the Chiefs shows all three at work and perhaps provided a blueprint for how Denver can maximize Nix’s effectiveness in the postseason.

    Start with the recognition.

    Nix has now seen Spagnuolo’s defense four times in his career. Same for Los Angeles Chargers coordinator Jesse Minter and Las Vegas’ Patrick Graham. All three draw high praise from Payton and the Broncos’ coaching staff.

    But it’s not just specific coordinators.

    Webb and the Broncos quarterback room talk frequently about coordinator “families.”

    “Jesse Minter, he comes from the Baltimore family,” Webb said. “So that’s Wink Martindale, that’s Mike Macdonald in Seattle. His first game ever was against Mike Macdonald. So you can pull from those experiences.”

    The more you see, the more you know, the more you can cross-reference, the more comfortable you get.

    Each coordinator has his own wrinkles for each matchup and preparation matters, but there’s not much substituting for experience.

    Nix has some familiarity with Buffalo and Sean McDermott, of course, since they played a year ago in the postseason. He also has a terrific resource in Webb, who spent three seasons as a player with the Bills and knows McDermott well.

    The staff also sees Nix’s footwork calming as the season progresses.

    In mid-December, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Nix’s feet, “have gotten a lot better,” since just before the Broncos’ Week 12 bye, noting “the way he handles himself in the pocket and just trusting the protection.”

    For Webb, that carried through the latter stages of the regular season. In part because of Nix’s between-snap habits, but also because of the leap in recognition.

    There’s a time and a place for happy feet. There are times and places where being too itchy to get moving can wipe big-play potential off the board.

    “It’s not allowing a pressure or something to affect him for the next throw,” Webb said. “‘Hey, deep breathe it out, understand this is the game within the game.’ Understand when the pocket is clean and we’ve got guys with either space or a coverage beater or a man-to-man matchup. That’s the time to have conviction with your throws as opposed to ‘uhhhhh’ and thinking about what happened before.

    “He’s done a good job of that as of late.”

    Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos scrambles for a gain against the Los Angeles Chargers during the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, January 4, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
    Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos scrambles for a gain against the Los Angeles Chargers during the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, January 4, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

    Escaping pressure

    Interestingly, Nix has also done something else lately: He’s taken off and run more.

    Part of that is opponent and plan-driven. Part of it is pressure-driven. Nix’s two highest scramble totals, per charting by The Post, have come against the Chargers. Perhaps not surprisingly, those two games are also the two highest pressure rates against Nix.

    In Weeks 17 and 18, though, Nix scrambled 10 total times. That’s Nix running on a designed pass play, so not including anything that looks like a designed run option for him or quarterback draws, sneaks and kneeldowns.

    Before Week 17, he’d scrambled 10 times in Denver’s previous nine games.

    Payton, during the Christmas game, told Nix and Webb he thought there were running lanes to exploit, but Nix said after Week 18 that he doesn’t think that’s what’s led to the uptick.

    “Sometimes I see or feel good lanes, sometimes I don’t have it that day and it’s harder to feel,” he said after Denver’s 19-3 win over L.A. earlier this month. “Some of that is doing it early and feeling it early. I think today, the third play of the game, we got a pressure. It just happens and you escape, you get there and it sort of gets you involved. It’s like hitting a free throw early in a basketball game. You just feel what it feels like, see the ball go through.”

    Nix scrambled a season-high six times against the Chargers for 48 yards. The week before: Four for 32.

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • Broncos will face playoff rematch with Buffalo Bills in AFC divisional round

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    On a frigid, blustery Sunday last January, one prevailing thought racked Sean Payton’s mind after the Bills ran over his Broncos in Orchard Park, New York.

    We have to figure out how to play this game at home.

    They did, in a 14-3 run to the AFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. And they’ll now face that same foe this weekend that Payton wished Denver could’ve seen on their home turf.

    On Saturday, the Broncos will take on the Bills and star quarterback Josh Allen in the AFC divisional round, in a rematch of last season’s 31-7 wild-card loss. Buffalo clinched the matchup against the top-seeded Broncos by knocking off the No. 3-seeded Jacksonville Jaguars 27-24 on Sunday, behind another virtuoso performance from MVP quarterback Allen: 28-of-35 passing for 273 yards and three total touchdowns.

    The Broncos were set to take on the lowest-seeded AFC winner from this weekend’s wild-card matchups, and their matchup against Buffalo was sealed after the No. 7-seeded Los Angeles Chargers fell 16-3 to the Patriots on Sunday night.

    Buffalo is a tough matchup, an organization desperate for a Super Bowl appearance after six straight seasons of AFC playoff exits under head coach Sean McDermott. The Broncos hung tougher with the Bills than last season’s wild-card result showed, as Denver trailed 13-7 late in the third quarter before a fourth-down touchdown grab by Tyler Johnson was upheld and flipped the game on its head.

    A year later, Denver will now see Buffalo in the first playoff game the city’s hosted since January 2016, when the Broncos advanced to an eventual Super Bowl win by beating Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 20-18. Now, to reach those same heights they did a decade ago, Denver will have to solve another generational quarterback in Allen — who’s proved largely impossible to solve since ascending to an All-Pro in 2020.

    Allen made mincemeat of Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s unit in January of last year, going 20-of-26 for 272 yards and two touchdowns. Running back James Cook is a force, too, powering his way for 120 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries in that wild-card matchup.

    Denver brings in a more polished version of quarterback Bo Nix, though, who now has a playoff game and a sophomore season of late-game comebacks under his belt. The Broncos opened Sunday night as 1.5-point favorites over Buffalo.

    Payton and his staff can now start game-planning for a specific opponent, after Denver spent Friday and Saturday practices in general offense-on-defense work rather than try and prepare for four different potential playoff matchups. And Payton and Denver will have the benefit of rest against Buffalo, with the Bills flying to Denver on a short week for Saturday’s game.

    Materially, these Broncos and Bills teams aren’t worlds different from their 2024 selves, beyond a few key pieces. But Denver now has the full benefit of Empower Field, which has reached an energy this season not felt since the days of Peyton Manning.

    “Last year, it was our first taste of it going into the playoffs as a wild card team,” cornerback Pat Surtain said Friday. “But now we have home-field advantage, which is different.”

    2026 NFL playoffs brackets, seeds, schedules, TV times, results and more

    The .

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    Luca Evans

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  • After dominant Week 18, Broncos’ Eyioma Uwazurike feels ‘100%’ ready to earn starting DL role in 2026

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    The first thing Broncos defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike usually sees, lining up on any given Sunday, is the opposing quarterback.

    The second thing he usually sees is the large frame of John Franklin-Myers running from the sidelines to replace him.

    “We’re toe-to-toe with each other at that position,” Uwazurike tells The Denver Post in the locker room Sunday. “Whenever he need, I got my eyes on him, whenever he come in and out.”

    Broncos clinch No. 1 seed, set out on Super Bowl chase: ‘You can see the light’

    Has there been an interior defensive-line competition in Denver, across this now-complete regular season? No, Uwazurike smiles. Not in the slightest. One is a 27-year-old reserve who has a total of 3.5 sacks across four seasons in the NFL. The other is — well, “John Franklin-Myers,” as Uwazurike enunciated. A superstar. A superstar who’s about to get paid.

    But on Sunday, Franklin-Myers missed his first game of the season and the final game of the season with a hip issue. And Uwazurike’s four-year journey in Denver took center stage, from a toolsy fourth-round pick in 2022 to a year-long gambling suspension in 2023 to an indispensable part of this Denver defensive line in 2025.

    “Today, I’m just really holding it down for him,” Uwazurike said postgame. “Waiting for him to get back, let him rest up, and for him to be fresh, so when my time come to officially start — whenever that comes, I’ll be ready for it.”

    He was ready on Sunday, Uwazurike capping off a quiet breakout season in a 19-3 win over the Chargers. It was the first start of that tumultuous four-year career. That meant something, Uwazurike nodded, lips spreading for a toothy grin. The 27-year-old racked up two quarterback hits, four tackles and a tackle for loss, a final showcase of a season spent helping fortify Denver in the trenches against opposing run games. And in the fourth quarter, with Denver trying to slam the door, Uwazurike tossed his blocker aside and swallowed up Chargers quarterback Trey Lance to finish with 3.5 sacks on the year.

    In three months, Franklin-Myers will likely be in another zip code. Denver has shelled out to keep most of its defensive line. It’s held off on Franklin-Myers, who has a career-best 7.5 sacks in 16 games. Uwazurike’s start Sunday not only helped the Broncos secure the No. 1 seed; it also could be a direct window into the future.

    Keeler: Broncos, make us Bo-lieve! If QB Bo Nix plays like he did vs. Chargers, Denver is 1-and-done in NFL playoffs

    “I don’t know what his situation is,” Uwazurike told The Post, asked on replacing Franklin-Myers if he signs elsewhere. “But if he’s not here? Yes. 100%. I feel like I should be able to take over that role completely. Perform similar to this, and hopefully better.”

    To note: there is no bad blood here. Uwazurike described Franklin-Myers, who’s only two years older, as a “big brother.” The two study together every week, filling similar roles in a widespread five-man rotation in the Broncos’ defense. Franklin-Myers just happens to be the starter. Uwazurike, though, has filled the middle on a variety of key downs this season, and has played a career-high 36% of Denver’s defensive snaps in 2025.

    “As long as he here, shoot, we rockin’ together, preparing together, all of that,” Uwazurike said of Franklin-Myers. “So, big shoutout to him. Because if it weren’t for him, wouldn’t have this successful game.”

    Uwazurike’s emergence in 2025 — now finishing the year with 39 tackles, five tackles for loss and five quarterback hits — has helped ease pressure on workload on starting defensive linemen Franklin-Myers and Zach Allen. Theirs is a sort of symbiotic rotation up front, and both Franklin-Myers and Allen finished their 2025 regular seasons with fewer reps than they played the previous season.

    Uwazurike is “the reason” why Allen’s played roughly 15% fewer defensive snaps in 2025 as compared to 2024, as Allen told The Post on Sunday.

    “He now sees what could come,” Allen told The Post, “if he just keeps on going.”

    What exactly could come is still uncertain. There’s still months left for Denver to decide to move some money around and find $20 million a year for Franklin-Myers. He has a uniquely “symbiotic” relationship with Allen, as rookie Jordan Miller told The Post a few weeks back.

    Renck: Broncos secure home field for playoffs, but are not home free from criticism

    Allen told The Post that he hadn’t had conversations with Franklin-Myers on a possible extension for him, and the two were simply focused on winning.

    “He’s been awesome through the whole process. Obviously, it’s tough. But like — I was in his shoes when I was in Arizona and we weren’t close to winning,” Allen said, referring to his final year in Arizona in 2022 before hitting free agency.

    “There’s just so much that goes into getting ready week-to-week that the stat stuff, it’s kinda hard to focus on. And J’s the ultimate professional.”

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  • Around the NFL: How Week 18 sets up the AFC field for Broncos’ potential playoff opponents

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    Around the AFC

    Patriots, Jaguars vying for top seed. The Broncos received a massive belated Christmas gift on Monday courtesy of Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, who relinquished all gamesmanship and said point-blank that Los Angeles would rest star quarterback Justin Herbert. Denver would have to absolutely implode to lose Sunday’s matchup. In such an event, though, New England (13-3) and Jacksonville (12-4) would be set up to seize that vaunted No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Patriots are playing a 7-9 Dolphins team that’s been mathematically eliminated; the Jaguars face 3-13 Tennessee, one of the worst teams in the NFL. Denver can’t afford to get too cute here.

    Fernando-mania. The Raiders are the NFL’s hottest current mess. They’ve lost 10 straight. The Pete Carroll experiment seems all but destined to end after one unceremonious year. 48-year-old minority owner Tom Brady was captured by TMZ getting a little close with 25-year-old influencer Alix Earle on New Year’s Eve. Las Vegas continues to be in the news for plenty of reasons beyond the actual on-field product. The good news? Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is only solidifying his case as a legitimate No. 1 pick, with a 14-of-16 line for 192 yards and three touchdowns in a drubbing of Alabama at the Rose Bowl on Thursday. Raiders general manager John Spytek has to be licking his chops.

    Rivers done, again. The great season-saving Philip Rivers Experiment is over, as the 44-year-old will now step back into retirement after three losses in Indianapolis. What a valiant effort it was, though: Rivers has a higher QBR (39.3) in three starts in 2025 than the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa or the Raiders’ Geno Smith have this season. The Colts announced rookie QB Riley Leonard will start in Week 18, with Indianapolis (8-8) removed from playoff contention. Rivers, though, expressed nothing but gratitude for the opportunity.

    “I got three bonus games that I never saw coming,” Rivers told reporters, “and couldn’t be more thankful that I got an opportunity.”

    Around the NFC

    Teach me how to Purdy. It’s time to officially crown San Francisco as serious NFC contenders. The 49ers were a distant afterthought in their own division a couple months back, floating at 6-4 behind Seattle and the Rams. Suddenly, the Niners have ripped off six wins in a row with the return of starting quarterback Brock Purdy, who’s playing with rarely-before-seen levels of confidence. Case in point: hitting a nasty Dougie after a touchdown against the Bears last Sunday in a 24-of-33, 303-yard, five-total-TD performance. As 49ers tight end George Kittle has said, heaven “forbid a white guy has a little bit of motion.”

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  • Position coach Isaac Shewmaker is the young mind behind Broncos’ edge-rusher success

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    The youngest coach in Dove Valley also looks the most out of place, by sheer physicality. This isn’t Isaac Shewmaker’s fault. It’s a compliment, more than anything.

    On Thursdays, the 29-year-old Shewmaker bends down to mimic a snap and leads one of the best pass-rush units in football in get-off drills. Luminaries bend before him: 6-foot-2, 246-pound second-year reserve Jonah Elliss tenses; 6-foot-3 All-Pro Nik Bonitto waits; 257-pound Jonathon Cooper, whose muscles have muscles, toes. They all snap forward at Shewmaker’s bark. At his beck.

    At a Broncos outside-linebackers coach who stands five-foot-something, and played a little high school ball back in Kentucky. No college.

    “Obviously, God gave me the brains to do it,” Shewmaker says, sitting on a bench after the Broncos’ Thursday practice. “But not the body to do it.”

    But ah, those brains. They have a knack for making the complex seem easy, in a Vance Joseph defense that presents a lot that’s complex. Elliss calls Shewmaker “just super smart.” Practice-squad reserve Garrett Nelson raves about the coach’s “high-level IQ.” Rookie Que Robinson says the young Shewmaker is “smart as hell.”

    “You’d probably walk past him in the grocery store and wouldn’t think he coached, probably, one of the top outside-linebacker groups,” Robinson cracks. “But yeah, shoot, man, he gets it done for us. And he’d probably give us the shirt off his back, at the end of the day.”

    You know Joseph, the defensive coordinator primed for a head-coaching gig. You know 30-year-old quarterbacks coach Davis Webb, who’s on the fast-track to a play-calling job soon enough. Meet Shewmaker, the most promising mind in Denver’s building who you probably have never heard of.

    Just ask reigning Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II.

    “He’s got a brilliant football mind,” Surtain says. “And he’s gon’ get one of those job promotions … like a D-coordinator, or something like that, very soon.”

    Quietly, Joseph’s defense experienced a large and partly unexpected turnover in leadership this offseason, after Denver fired inside linebackers coach Greg Manusky in January — and then fired outside linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite a month later after Wilhoite was charged with a now-dropped felony assault of a police officer. The young Shewmaker was waiting in the wings, fresh off just two years in defensive quality control in Denver. And in his first season as an NFL position coach, Shewmaker has presided over the driving group in a pass-rush that just broke its own franchise record for sacks (64).

    That room is chock-full on talent, of course. The Broncos are set to pay Bonitto and Cooper over $160 million in the next few seasons for their services, and Elliss is a 2023 third-round pick. The room’s also chock-full on personalities. Bonitto hosts impromptu dance-circles in the middle of group drills, and Cooper bleats loud and often.

    “I know it’s kind of a big ask to kinda wrangle our room” Nelson says.

    Shewmaker is a young shepherd. Really, though, he has been building for this since he could walk. At 6 years old, he announced at his kindergarten graduation that he intended to become the head football coach at the University of Kentucky.

    He loves the game — particularly defense — because it is a chess match. And Shewmaker teaches it as such.

    “If they understand why they have to be here because of who it affects, then they buy into it more,” Shewmaker says. “When you just say, ‘Well, you have to set the edge because that’s what the piece of paper says,’ they have a harder time buying into it. So part of my whole thing is, ever since I started was – learning it on a level where I can teach all 11.”

    He gave up playing for good after high school, when he suffered a variety of concussions in football and then got drilled by a 92 mph fastball to the noggin his senior year playing baseball. Doctors told him he should stop. (“I was like, ‘That’s probably fair,’ ” Shewmaker acknowledges.) So he went to Kentucky and became an equipment manager, resolving to simply do anything he could to get in the building.

    Within a month, the program assigned him to help out with defensive backs. Within a year, ex-Kentucky defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley took a DBs job at Alabama and convinced Shewmaker — a student — to transfer. Shewmaker became a defensive assistant on Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s staff as a college sophomore in 2016. The rest is recent history.

    In Denver, now, this Broncos edge-rusher group has answered the call at nearly every bell, down to the depth. Elliss has waded through an injury-muddled season to rack up 1.5 sacks and a couple of tackles for loss in his past three games. Reserve Dondrea Tillman has rounded into a legitimate star in his role, with four sacks and two interceptions in his last 10 games. Robinson, a 2025 fourth-round pick who was thought of as a mostly developmental prospect, contributed two quarterback hits in rotational reps in a Week 16 loss to the Jaguars.

    Shewmaker, Robinson says, helps his group focus from not getting “scatterbrained” inside the detail of a formation.

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    Luca Evans

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  • Will run game undermine Broncos without J.K. Dobbins?

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    Troy Renck: The Broncos offense was a chore to watch on Christmas. Like eating vegetables. While it is fair to suggest Denver is a year ahead of schedule in its return to excellence, the Broncos are here, so their flaws must be examined like cells under under a microscope. They can secure the No. 1 seed with a win over the Chargers on Sunday. But a lingering issue persists: Will Denver’s run game, led by rookie RJ Harvey, become the Broncos’ undoing?

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    Troy Renck, Parker Gabriel

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  • Broncos kickoff time for Week 18 home game vs. Chargers announced

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    The Broncos will play for the No. 1 seed in the AFC on Sunday afternoon.

    Denver is set to host the Los Angeles Chargers at 2:25 p.m. Sunday at Empower Field. CBS has the broadcast.

    The NFL announced the full set of games for the final week of the regular season on Sunday night.

    The Broncos have put themselves in the best position of any team in the AFC. When the Chargers lost Saturday to Houston, Denver clinched the West division championship.

    Their ideal scenario is simple: Beat the Chargers and clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference, a bye through the Wild Card round and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • Out of AFC West race, playoff-bound Chargers to decide how much to play Justin Herbert against Broncos

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    EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Chargers have little to play for in Week 18, which raises the question of whether quarterback Justin Herbert should take the field in the regular-season finale against the Denver Broncos and their league-leading pass rush.

    Coach Jim Harbaugh said after a 20-16 loss to the Houston Texans on Saturday he hadn’t thought about it yet. Herbert talked as if he expects to play. But if the Chargers (11-5) are going to have any meaningful chance to win in the wild-card round and be a real threat in the playoffs, they need Herbert at full strength, which might require holding him out of the game.

    Everything that transpired against the Texans and their elite defensive line indicated the best way to ensure the Chargers QB is ready for the postseason would be to sit him.

    Herbert was sacked five times and hit eight times as the offensive line showed its one week revival in Dallas was indeed more the result of the Cowboys defense.

    Herbert was under siege, as he could be in Denver. The Broncos are averaging four sacks per game, with outside linebackers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper combining for 20 1/2 sacks this season. And with the top seed in the AFC, a first-round bye and home-field advantage all at stake, that defense will have plenty of incentive to go all-out.

    Already playing with a surgically repaired non-throwing hand, Herbert went to the sideline with that left hand and arm dangling after being sacked on the first drive of the game against the Texans.

    Fortunately for the Chargers, he was able to keep playing without issue, showcasing Herbert’s immense importance in trying to rally the Chargers out of an early 14-0 deficit.

    “I mean, every week he does things that are reserved for only the best in the game — heroic,” Harbaugh said. “It’s just the kind of competitor he is, and so many feed off of him, we all feed off him. I kind of ran out of superlatives, really.”

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    Dan Greenspan

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  • Broncos win AFC West for first time since 2015

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    A decade-long drought is over.

    The Broncos are AFC West champions again.

    The long wait ended Saturday evening in the midst of a long weekend for the Broncos, who beat Kansas City on Christmas night and then watched with joy as Houston knocked off the Los Angeles Chargers two days later.

    That result cemented the Broncos’ status as division champions by knocking the Chargers to 11-5, two games behind with just a Week 18 tilt between the teams at Empower Field remaining.

    Head coach Sean Payton has said since the beginning of the season that the team’s three goals, in order, are to win the division, earn the best seed possible and then play for a Super Bowl title.

    Now the first of those goals is achieved. Next weekend Denver will play for the second.

    The game against the Chargers loses some juice because, had Los Angeles won Saturday, it would have been a division championship game. Still, the stakes are plenty high for Payton’s team. A win secures the No. 1 seed in the AFC, a bye through the Wild Card round and the assurance that the playoffs will run through Denver as long as the Broncos are playing.

    Regardless of what happens in Week 18 — the NFL sets the playing slate after Week 17 action finishes, meaning the Broncos and Chargers could play Saturday or Sunday — Denver is assured of a top-3 seed in the conference and a home playoff game.

    The difference between the top spot and any other, though, should be plenty to keep Payton’s team motivated as it returns to the practice field this week.

    “We have to play the final game and we have to take care of it,” quarterback Bo Nix said Thursday night after beating the Chiefs but before the division was secured. “They’re going to be a good football team. Some other team could help us along the way, but at the end of the day, it is going to come down to us vs. them. We’re excited to have them at home. It is going to be a really good environment and atmosphere. It’s honestly a playoff atmosphere. It is going to be tough.”

    Now the Chargers have only seeding to play for, but Jim Harbaugh’s team has been a thorn in Payton’s side. Harbaugh to date is 3-0 against Denver since returning to the NFL before the 2024 season.

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    Parker Gabriel

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  • Broncos’ Bo Nix explains fear of dogs to Kirk Herbstreit after first interaction went viral

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    We continue to learn things about Bo Nix that surprise us.

    Last year, we found out he does not curse. On Christmas Day, he revealed his fear of dogs to Kirk Herbstreit after an awkward meeting with the broadcaster’s famous golden retriever Peter went viral last month.

    Herbstreit reunited the pair, with Nix petting the pup during warmups before the Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-13.

    “My wife (Izzy) will be shocked,” Nix said.

    Herbstreit travels the country with Peter, who took over the role of unofficial ambassador after his brother Ben passed away last November following a battle with leukemia and lymphoma.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Broncos sign C Sam Mustipher from Chargers’ practice squad

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    The Broncos continued tinkering with their offensive line mix Friday by signing center Sam Mustipher from the Los Angeles Chargers’ practice squad.

    To clear a spot on the 53-man roster, Denver waived offensive lineman Calvin Throckmorton. If Throckmorton clears waivers, he is in line to return to the Broncos’ practice squad.

    The move is interesting for multiple reasons.

    First, Mustipher spent 2024 training camp with the Broncos before being waived at the roster cutdown deadline. He’s a veteran player and one who is familiar to the Broncos.

    Also: Mustipher played 12 games last year for the Chargers and has been on Jim Harbaugh’s practice squad for a chunk of this season, too. Denver plays what is sure to be a meaningful game and still could end up a titanic one in Week 18 at home against the Chargers.

    Throckmorton served as the No. 2 center for Denver on Thursday night at Kansas City as Alex Forsyth stepped into the starting lineup.

    He replaced Luke Wattenberg, who was placed on injured reserve Thursday with a shoulder injury. Head coach Sean Payton said the IR placement for Wattenberg, who just signed a four-year, $48 million extension in November, came down to roster management.

    “He’s right at that (four-week) mark,” Payton said of Wattenberg.

    Wattenberg is first eligible to return if the Broncos make the AFC Championship Game.

    Assuming Denver gets Throckmorton back to the practice squad, it will have four experienced interior options as depth: Throckmorton, Mustipher, Geron Christian and whoever doesn’t start at left guard between Alex Palczewski and Ben Powers.

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  • Broncos-Chiefs scouting report: No Patrick Mahomes. No Gardner Minshew. Hello, Chris Oladokun.

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    Broncos (12-3) at Chiefs (6-9)

    When: 6:15 p.m. Thursday

    Where: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.

    TV/radio: Prime Video, 850 AM/94.1 FM

    Broncos-Chiefs series: Both Denver and Kansas City know this well. The Broncos are still down all-time to the Chiefs, at 57-73-0 in 130 total matchups in the franchises’ history. But Denver has the recent upper hand, with two straight regular-season wins and a nail-biting 22-19 win over Kansas City on Nov. 16. The Broncos’ defense hasn’t been the same since that win and subsequent bye, though.

    In the spotlight: Who the Kel(ce) is Chiefs starting quarterback Chris Oladokun?

    How the mighty have fallen.

    On Christmas, the Broncos will take a short flight up to Kansas City to witness the death throes of a franchise that only has a couple of games left on the throne. The Chiefs will not win the AFC West for the first time in a decade, and they’ll finish with a losing record for the first time since the 2-14 days of Romeo Crennel in 2012. This may well be the last time that Denver sees 36-year-old future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce, who will make a retirement decision after the season. They won’t see quarterback Patrick Mahomes — and might not next year, either — after Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in Dec. 14’s 16-13 loss to the Chargers.

    To make matters worse, Kansas City’s QB stopgap Gardner Minshew hurt his knee in Sunday’s loss to the Titans. That leaves this Kansas City dynasty, for a primetime affair with the country watching on Christmas evening, turning to … Chris Oladokun.

    Who?

    Here’s what’s known on the 28-year-old Oladokun, from a national perspective. He played two seasons of FBS football as a backup at USF, from 2017-18. He transferred to FCS program Samford for a couple of years. He started at South Dakota State for one year after that, and played well enough (3,164 yards, 25 TDs) to warrant a seventh-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022’s draft. Oladokun was waived during roster cuts that fall, signed to Kansas City’s practice squad a few days later, and has stuck there pretty much ever since.

    Now, after being promoted to the active roster after Mahomes’ injury and filling in for an injured Minshew mid-game against Tennessee — 11-for-16, 111 yards — Oladokun will make the first start of his NFL career against the current No. 1 seed in the AFC.

    “It’s something I don’t take lightly,” Oladokun told Kansas City reporters Tuesday. “These opportunities don’t come around often, and so when you get ‘em, you gotta take that and run with it. So, this is not only a big game for our team, but me personally a big game, in terms of letting the league know what I can do and letting these coaches know what I can do.”

    So what can he do? Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said this week that Oladokun has had an “easy transition” because of his knowledge of Kansas City’s offensive verbiage, but that they’d naturally ease back on specific formations without Mahomes. One obvious similarity: just 8% of Mahomes’ attempts this season have come from under center, in Kansas City’s shotgun-heavy offense. Just one of Oladokun’s 16 attempts against the Titans came from under center, too. That doesn’t seem destined to change.

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    Luca Evans

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  • Broncos don’t intend to place LB Dre Greenlaw on injured reserve, sources say

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    A potential Week 15 injury nightmare for these Broncos appears to be more just a bad dream.

    Denver is not planning to place linebacker Dre Greenlaw on injured reserve, multiple sources told The Denver Post on Tuesday. Greenlaw suffered a non-contact hamstring injury late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 34-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and has been listed as an estimated DNP on Denver’s injury reports Monday and Tuesday.

    With 2:07 left in a game that was already decided, Greenlaw chased Jaguars running back Travis Etienne at the back-end of an 11-yard run and came up hopping over to the sidelines on his right leg, clearly unable to put much weight on his left. The Broncos quickly ruled Greenlaw out with a hamstring injury, a somber development for Denver’s late-season push for an AFC West divisional title and No. 1 seed.

    The Broncos, though, clearly don’t view Greenlaw’s injury as season-ending. If they did opt to place him on injured reserve, the soonest Greenlaw could return — if Denver locks up the one-seed in the AFC — would be for a potential conference championship game. It’s likely, then, that Greenlaw is back at some point for the Broncos’ playoff run.

    Denver’s linebacker room has been a game-by-game carousel this season, with Greenlaw and starting linebacker Alex Singleton just starting to develop some synergy before Greenlaw’s latest ailment. The offseason signee was hampered for much of the start of 2025 with a lingering quad injury, and then served a one-game suspension in Week 8.

    Singleton then missed a game three weeks later after undergoing surgery to remove a testicular tumor. And LB3 Justin Strnad didn’t play Sunday against the Jaguars with a foot injury, with rookie Karene Reid already on injured reserve since November.

    The Broncos should have reinforcements in any extended Greenlaw absence, as Strnad was a full participant in Tuesday’s walkthrough and looks set to start next to Singleton in Greenlaw’s place against the Chiefs on Christmas Day. Denver, too, could elevate Reid this week off IR after opening his 21-day window to return last week.

    Center shakeup

    Broncos starting center Luke Wattenberg wasn’t present for Tuesday’s walkthrough with a shoulder injury, indicating Wattenberg’s highly doubtful to play Thursday against the Chiefs on Christmas Day. It’d be Wattenberg’s first missed game of the year, after starting 15 straight and earning a midseason extension in his second year as Denver’s man in the middle.

    Backup Alex Forsyth would almost certainly be the next man up in Wattenberg’s absence. Forsyth filled in capably for four games in 2024 when Wattenberg was placed on injured reserve with an ankle injury, and has plenty of cohesion with quarterback Bo Nix dating back to a shared 2022 season playing for Oregon.

    Still rotating

    The Broncos eased left guard Ben Powers back into action slowly against Jacksonville, playing Powers just 23 snaps in his return off injured reserve in a two-possession rotation with Alex Palczewski. Payton said Tuesday that the Powers-Palczewski rotation will continue Thursday night against Kansas City.

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    Luca Evans

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