How did Sunday affect the Denver Broncos’ playoff scenarios?

In fact, in probably the most surprising development of all, the Kansas City Chiefs have actually clinched a playoff spot before the Broncos, despite the fact that Denver is still leading the AFC West.

With a Chiefs win and a Jets loss, the Chiefs can clinch a playoff spot.

Here are the full playoff scenarios for the remaining postseason contenders.

Chiefs (10-5) – Kansas City secured a playoff berth with its win over Cleveland and Pittsburgh’s loss. The Jets received, drove down field, scored a touchdown and won the game, to the bafflement of Patriots fans everywhere. The Panthers, now 14-1, may still very likely earn home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, but the hopes for the team to make history and potentially join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only unbeaten Super Bowl champion has been shut down after the 20-13 loss to the Falcons. But if the Broncos lose, they’ll need a Week 17 win over the Chargers to avoid a potential slide all the way out of the playoffs, depending on the result of the Jets-Bills game (a NY win in that case would bump Denver from the tournament).

There are lots of intriguing playoff matchups and possible outcomes still to play out over the final two weeks, but the most important thing for the Chiefs is to keep on winning.

The NFC has already decided the six teams that will appear in at least one postseason round, however the matchups for wild-card weekend are still undecided. They need to win their final game against the Titans next week, the Texans to lose next week, the Bengals to lose tonight, and a series of other games to break their way next week for them to own the tiebreaker re: their win-loss percentage against common teams they’ve played with the Texans.

A Week 17 win against Arizona guarantees Seattle the 5th seed; a loss would drop them to the 6th seed only if Minnesota beats Green Bay. They can still finish with the #1 seed, but they’ll need to win out without Andy Dalton and for the Patriots to lose both of their remaining games. If Denver had just pulled out one victory against the Raiders or Steelers, they’d now be in control of the AFC’s top seed.

Houston Texans: At 7-7, the Texans lead the AFC South. They need one win to be about 97% sure they win the division.

This would be a tougher matchup round one than traveling to an AFC South victor, but a win here would also provide an easier round two matchup.

Seattle Seahawks (10-5) – clinched playoff berth.

Can clinch a first-round bye with wins in Week 16 and Week 17.

New England Patriots: No matter what happens, the 12-2 Patriots are getting a bye week.

The Bengals are at the Broncos on tonight to help sort out some postseason seeding.

New York Jets: At 9-5, the Jets need to win out, but that alone isn’t going to be enough.

Five games ago, the Steelers were 6-4, one of only four teams in the AFC with a winning record, and the only one among non-division leaders. Anything else? They can actually still win their division, although that means winning out and the Bengals losing both of theirs. The Broncos have three possibilities – division champs, wild card or out completely.

Washington Redskins (8-7) – clinched playoff berth.