It's painful to admit it say it out loud, but the LA Chargers should thank the Denver Broncos. On a day where the Chargers were punched in the mouth by another AFC Wild Card contender, the Broncos upset the Kansas City Chiefs to send the Bolts a lifeline.
Denver hosted the Chiefs as 3.5-point underdogs and didn't just cover: they won by a field goal. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid now find themselves with a 5-5 record, 3.5 games back of the AFC West crown. Winning the division is out of the equation. Making the playoffs is going to be a grind.
This is a blessing for the Chargers, [who fell to 7-4 on the season with the loss to the Jacksonville](https://boltbeat.com/chargers-officially-kiss-their-super-bowl-hopes-goodbye-in-loss-to-jaguars) Jaguars. Beating the Jaguars would have catapulted the Chargers into near-clinch territory. A loss brought the Chargers back down to Earth, but the Chiefs added some much-needed cushion.
Chargers' playoff odds increase drastically thanks to Chiefs loss
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[The Athletic's Playoff Upshot model](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nfl-playoff-picture/2025/chargers/) gave the Chargers a 68% chance of making the playoffs after losing to the Jaguars. With a win, the Chargers' odds would have been 93%. That's neither here nor there.
Those odds climbed to 71% after the Chiefs' loss. It may not seem like that big of a jump, but when breaking down the playoff picture, the Chargers clearly have an advantage over Kansas City.
At 5-5, the Chiefs are two wins behind the Chargers and don't have the head-to-head matchup. The Chargers beat the Chiefs in Week 1; another win would essentially clinch a playoff spot. Los Angeles doesn't _need_ a win, though, as the team's Week 1 win keeps the Chiefs from having the head-to-head tiebreaker.
If the head-to-head record is tied, the tiebreaker reverts to conference record. This is where the Chargers have a huge advantage. Los Angeles is 6-2 against the AFC thus far this season. Kansas City is 2-4. Even if Kansas City wins out against the AFC, the team would need the Chargers to lose _another_ AFC game just to be tied in that tiebreaker.
Sure, it would have been nice to beat the Jaguars and essentially lock up a playoff spot with the Chiefs losing to the Broncos. And yes, the Chargers would have been just one game back in striking distance for the AFC West crown with a win overJacksonville.
But it's nice to have a win on a day where the Chargers were beaten down bad, even if that win had to come via a hated division rival. Thanks to the Broncos, the Chargers are in the driver's seat and control their own destiny with plenty of cushion of the biggest threat there is: the Chiefs.
We'll never say it again so Broncos fans better screenshot this article... but thank you Sean Payton and Bo Nix.