News broke on Monday that the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs would be a Christmas Day Game in the 2025 NFL Season. The Chiefs are again playing on Chirstmas, having beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers on the holiday in the 2024 NFL Season.
Well, the league seems to think that the Broncos are now deserving of playing in one of the more primetime slots of the entire season. Now yes, Christmas is on a Thursday this year, and the NFL has had Thursday Night Football for quite a while, so this is kind of a double whammy.
The Chiefs have been a mainstay atop the NFL for well over half a decade, but the upstart Broncos are the new kids on the block.
Broncos vs. Chiefs could also signal a deeper meaning...
As we saw in 2024, not only were the Denver Broncos a lot better than expected, but they did practically beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead.
If it wasn't for that last-second blocked field goal, the Broncos would have gone into Arrowhead with a rookie QB and come out with a victory. KC rested their starters in Week 18, and the Broncos ended up taking care of business in that game. Denver also beat Kansas City in their second matchup of the 2023 NFL Season, so they have won two of their last three against KC.
Christmas night in Kansas City: Broncos at Chiefs. pic.twitter.com/KIQRkFc4NI
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 12, 2025
We can even take this a step further and look at the extremely slim margins that the Chiefs won their games in 2024. The Chiefs had a +59 point differential during the regular season, and the Broncos had a +114 differential. Denver also scored more points and allowed less points than Kansas City last regular season.
If we use these statistics right here, we can say that the Broncos were better than the Chiefs - given that Denver likely has some untapped potential with Bo Nix heading into year two, there is reason to believe that this Christmas Day Game could also be a massive power-shift in the AFC West back to the Broncos, who were even better than their record indicated they were.
I do believe the NFL also sees this, so this game being under the lights on a major holiday could have way more meaning than just a primetime game.