Broncos by the numbers for the Wild Card round

The Denver Broncos are on a bye for the Wild Card round, but we’ve got some regular season stats to share. In fact, we’ve had so many that I’ll need to break this up into two posts. One for this week and one for next week.

Denver has a chance to face four of the six playoff teams next week: the Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills, or Los Angeles Chargers. We could know Denver’s opponent as early as Sunday if the Chargers or Bills win, but if both lose then we’ll find out Monday night.

Here’s what I’ve got for the Wild Card round:

Fun 2026 schedule infographic

We’ll start things off with just a “well that’s cool” type of thing. This infographic took me a moment to understand because shapes make me think of geometry and I failed geometry. I like algebra just fine, but boy… add in some shapes and my brain just crashes out.

That said, it was neat to see things aligned in a way where all of the Broncos opponents are aligned as they should be.

Though that schedule looks pretty damn brutal if you ask me!

Good defense matters the most in the NFL

You could have quite an explosive offense and still find yourself out of chances. The Dallas Cowboys would be a good example of that. It’s the defensive side of the ball that sets teams above the rest and the only real exception to that rule this season was the Chicago Bears. However, the Bears were among the league leaders in turnovers and that helps overcome their poor defensive output in other areas.

I think back to 2013 when the Broncos offense set records. Frankly, I think the injuries to Von Miller and Chris Harris Jr. that year was the death blow that led to the Super Bowl blowout. Maybe they still lose that game, but also maybe its not 43-8…

Nearly all metrics kind of show the same teams at the top. The Broncos defense is obviously very good.

Bo Nix getting it done on 3rd/4th downs

I’ve shared this chart multiple times down the stretch, but this time I found it in The Feed section on Mile High Report. I recall the first time I shared it we had Bo Nix in third behind Justin Herbert and Josh Allen. Nix dominated in this situations over the final two weeks of the season and blew past the field to finish first in the NFL.

In some ways, this metric is also bad because it shows an offense gets into those situations far too often. However, looking at the Top 10 listed those are mostly elite quarterbacks and so its good to see Nix leading a field of elite quarterbacks on the season.

The 2025 Broncos are gamers

It’s well documented that the 2025 Broncos are dominating in one-score games, but what we don’t discuss is how they perform in those few losses they’ve had. In those games, the Broncos were among the best in the NFL in scoring despite coming up short.

This tells me which teams are gamers. When the chips are down they put points on the board. I’ve had the Los Angeles Rams as the team I’m probably most afraid of if the Broncos were to reach the Super Bowl. This stat shows why I would be wary of them until the clocked ticked down to 0.

There are some Super Bowl poor teams out there

I remember what it was like to be on that NEVER list. I’d lived through three of those Super Bowl losses in the 80s and living in Northern California was even worse given the 55-10 drubbing by the San Francisco 49ers. There were a lot of kids in my school who were 49ers fans and I was the only Broncos fan, so yeah, middle schoolers were not holding back after that one!

The Broncos are 3-1 since in the big game, so I’m glad I don’t have to be part of that conversation anymore.

Maybe we don’t want to see the Chargers again

One team that has given Sean Payton fits during his tenure with the Broncos has been the Chargers. And under Jim Harbaugh, they have been ridiculously good against the Broncos in generate pressure. We also know that the Broncos’ offensive line has been good in protecting Bo Nix, so this stat is definitely concerning.

This is one team we do not want to see in the playoffs, I think. Hopefully the New England Patriots stay hot for one more week before their wheels come off.

That’s the best of the best that I found this week. If you have any interesting tweets or posts you’ve seen this week about the Broncos, share in the comments section below!