Bo Nix, Broncos clinch first playoff berth since 2015 - ESPN

DENVER — It was a thousand-word picture, as a beaming, 24-year-old rookie quarterback enjoyed a moment with thousands of his newest friends, almost a decade in the making.

After the Denver Broncos clinched the seventh, and final, playoff spot in the AFC with a 38-0 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High, Bo Nix took a victory lap, high-fiving roaring, ecstatic fans around the stadium.

«I learned I've got to run a little more during the week because that's a long lap,'' Nix said with a wry smile. „I was a little tired at the end. The fans deserve it, and it's been a long time coming.''

A long time indeed. Sunday's win, over a Chiefs team that rested most of its front-line players with the AFC's No. 1 seed already locked up, clinched the Broncos' first postseason trip since their Super Bowl 50 win to close the 2015 season.

No player on the current roster has worn a Broncos uniform in a postseason game. Left tackle Garett Bolles, in his eighth season with the team, and wide receiver Courtland Sutton, in his seventh season in Denver, are the longest-tenured Broncos, and next Sunday's wild-card game in Buffalo against the Bills (13-4) will be the first playoff game for each of them.

“Kind of hard to put into words,'' Sutton said. „To be in that situation where we get a chance to extend our season is a really cool experience.… [Bolles] and I were able to have a little moment on the sideline.… To see the joy and the light in his eyes… a really good feeling to just know we have an opportunity to extend our season, to do something special and to get this organization back on track to what it's known for.

“We've been through the ugly, and to be able to see the other side of it… man, it's really