NFL Playoff Scenarios: What Each Team Needs To Get To The Postseason
By Keith Myers
AFC West
| AFC West Team | W | L | Remaining Opp. |
| Denver Broncos | 11 | 3 | Cin, Oak |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 8 | 6 | Pit, SD |
| San Diego Chargers | 8 | 6 | SF, KC |
Denver has already clinched the division title, and are now just playing for playoff seeding. They have a full game and the tiebreaker on Indianapolis for the No. 2 seed, so Denver can clinch a first-round bye with one more win.
Denver needs help to take home-field advantage away from the Patriots though. New England holds the tiebreaker over Denver. To get that No. 1 seed, Denver needs the Patriots to lose at least once in these last two weeks.
San Diego and Kansas City play each other in Week 17, and that game could be a play-in game for the playoffs. In one of them loses this week, that game could be a play-out game as well. Buffalo’s only shot at the playoff requires both of the AFC West teams finishing with nine or fewer wins.
Getting to 10 wins will get Kansas City into the playoffs. Since they will have to beat Pittsburgh to get there, it will give the Chiefs the tiebreak over the Steelers necessary to secure at least the sixth seed.
10 wins doesn’t guarantee a spot in the playoffs for the Chargers though, though it would make it very likely. The scenario in which a 10-win Chargers team misses the playoffs would require Baltimore winning the North with 11 wins, followed by Cincinnati at 10.5 and Pittsburgh at 10. In that scenario, the Chargers would be on the outside looking in based conference record tiebreaker with Pittsburgh.
The Chiefs can actually get in with nine wins, but they’ll require a lot of help. Baltimore would have to lose out, plus Houston and Buffalo would have to lose at least one game.
Next: AFC North