Mile High Report
Since 2020, the NFL changed its format to squeeze in a seventh playoff team in each conference. Since then, having the number one seed became even more important. In year’s past, two teams would have a bye in the playoffs and now it is down to one.
The Super Bowl has had at least one team who was the top seed in all but one of the five games since the playoff format. It is something that head coach Sean Payton is thinking about with six games to go.
“Analytically, in the 25 years of the [No.] 1 and 2 seed that didn’t play… Then the goal obviously is the end game,” Payton said on Wednesday. “You are in a position where they can kind of see that if you are able to capture the No. 1 seed—and it used to be the No. 2 seed—you eliminate a game and that is significant. Those early years in New Orleans, we were the No. 2 seed and ended up at Chicago as the No. 1 seed in tough weather. I remember after that tough loss feeling like, ‘We have to find a way to play this game at home,’ and there it was a few years later in the NFC Championship Game.”
A team doesn’t always get into a position to think about the one seed, but the 2025 Denver Broncos have a chance if they can keep winning. As Payton said, playing one less game in the playoffs is significant.
All that said, the Broncos have proven to be annoyingly good — for opposing teams — when behind too. If they end up falling short of the top seed in the AFC, then I do think they’ll be able to find ways to win regardless.
