The Kansas City Chiefs’ streak of reaching the postseason, which began in 2015, winning the AFC West every season since 2016, is broken. The Denver Broncos have claimed the title, ending a 10-year division drought of their own. The Chiefs’ fate was sealed when Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee during a loss to the Chargers earlier this month.
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The ending of Kansas’ run, and the ascension of Denver, whose last divisional title came in 2015, comes loaded with meaning inside and outside the locker room. And that emotion spilled over pretty quickly.
After the clincher in the form of a 20-13 Week 16 win against none other than the Chiefs, feelings were running a little too high for Broncos outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper. He fired off a cuss-filled celebratory tweet to mark the moment.
“F**k the chiefs,” Cooper wrote in a now-deleted tweet. And he was not done there. The DE followed it up with another shot shortly after: “Bi**h made a** pansies.”
#Broncos DE Jonathon Cooper after officially clinching the AFC West last night 👀 pic.twitter.com/z0iixKfvgk
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 28, 2025
The celebration sparked a lot of reaction online. Chiefs haters piled on with “one of us” comments, while KC faithfuls fired back, insisting the Broncos “won’t win a damn thing” this season.
“You can tell when [expletive] ain’t used to winning shit,” a Chiefs fan penned, while another chimed in: “Worried about the 3rd place divisional team with playoffs around the corner… most obvious first round exit in a while.”
“Chiefs had him in hell,” a third fan said.
So what does the playoff path actually look like for Denver? With one game left at home against the Chargers, a win would lock up the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye, and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. That alone puts them in a strong position to make a deep run, at least to the AFC title game.
No one is saying the Super Bowl is out of reach, but it will not be easy. The Jacksonville Jaguars have already proved they can beat Denver late in the year. The Chargers are another problem altogether. If the Broncos slip up in Week 18 against them, that would be a matchup they would rather avoid in the playoffs.
Perhaps that is why Cooper deleted the tweet. The job is far from finished, and the Broncos still have work to do.
With both the offense and defense clicking, a first-round exit would be a major letdown. Anything short of a deep run would be disappointing for the Broncos this season.
