With a 38-0 victory over the 15-2 Kansas City Chiefs at Mile High, the 10-7 Denver Broncos ended their two-game losing streak on Sunday. Maybe it was the third time that mattersed.
With this win, the Broncos will return to the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Next weekend, the No. 2-seeded Buffalo Bills, who are currently 13-4, will be in Upstate New York to take on the 7-win Denver Broncos, who secured the final AFC Wildcard spot. Keep in mind that when the Chiefs started their starting lineup in Week 11, the only team to beat them this season was the Bills.
Sean McVay, Isiah Pacheco, Travis Kelce, Jawaan Taylor, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes were among the starters benched by Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Once Kansas City earned the No. 1 seed on Christmas, they were granted that right.
Some may look down on the Broncos’ victory as a fluke given that they were no match for the Chiefs’ starting lineup, which included two reigning Super Bowl champions, but in Sean Payton and the developing quarterback Bo Nix, they finally found success.
In the National Football League, anything can happen, even the most unlikely of upsets in the playoffs. After eight long years, Broncos County is overjoyed to be back in the playoffs. What, though, were the takeaways from Denver’s thrilling victory?
Before the Broncos go to Buffalo for the NFL playoffs, let’s go over significant takeaways from their tenth victory of the season.
Banks Incentive Bonus: Sutton Achieves Milestone
Courtland Sutton, who is now in his fourth year as captain, has defied the stereotype of the diva wide receiver. The seventh-year veteran has been through the arduous head-coaching and quarterback carousels since being picked by Denver in 2018. Still, he hasn’t publicly called for a move or blamed his coaches or teammates.
Instead, following a deadlock with the club during the offseason’s voluntary exercises, Sutton consented to a contract renegotiation last summer; the new terms included $1.5 million in performance-based incentives. The 29-year-old is committed to his present contract until 2025 after signing a $60 million deal in 2021.
To help with the contractual implications of cornerback Patrick Surtain II’s mega-deal and, later, outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper’s, Sutton was once again flexible with the Broncos in early September, agreeing to another restructure that created $9.5M in salary-cap space.
Sutton finished Sunday’s game against the Chiefs with more than eighty-two receiving yards, giving him his second 1,000-yard campaign in his career and qualifying him for a $500,000 incentive. Sutton caught a pass for 1,000 yards and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2019, the last time the Broncos had a receiver with that many receptions.
Sutton was named the Broncos’ top receiver in Week 18 after catching five passes for 98 yards, including a touchdown pass from Nix that went for 10 yards. Next weekend in Buffalo, Sutton will play in his first postseason game as a professional. He was elected to the Pro Bowl alternate and remains Nix’s most dependable receiver with 81 receptions, 1,081 receiving yards, and eight touchdowns.
