With the start of Wild Card Weekend less than 24 hours away, we aren’t far from knowing who the Broncos will face just over two weeks from now in the Divisional round of the NFL Playoffs. Denver has three potential opponents for a ticket to the AFC Championship in the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers.

With that in mind, we wrangled up four of our staff members for a little roundtable with just one question: who should Broncos Country be cheering for on Saturday?

Adam Kinney

Chiefs and Steelers

These might be the two teams that no one wants to face in the playoffs but I think this would be the most favorable outcome for the Denver Broncos this wild card weekend.

The Chiefs are on a roll. No denying it. That also means they might be the team best equipped to go to Foxboro and knock off the ailing New England Patriots before they would potentially meet the Broncos at Mile high for the AFC Championship game. Yes, that would mean Denver would have to then face the red-hot Chiefs instead but the Broncos and Peyton Manning will likely want to get the taste of the November 15th meltdown out of their mouths by eliminating the Chiefs on their way to Super Bowl 50.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves the Broncos would have to beat the Steelers first. Pittsburgh is also a threat in many people’s eyes but backed their way into the playoffs despite a terrible end of the season loss to the Ravens so they aren’t playing their best football. It would set up a rematch of top offense vs top defense, which considering the style of playoff football, would favor the Broncos. Chris Harris will want to get his revenge on Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams is banged up and the Steelers don’t have any other fearful backs on the roster. The Broncos would actually be fortunate in the fact that they lost the week 15 matchup against Pittsburgh as it has been proven time and time again that it’s incredibly difficult to beat a team twice in the NFL. Typically the team that wins the regular season matchup, in turn, will lose the postseason matchup. Point and case: Ravens, Patriots and Colts vs the Broncos in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Ryan Koenigsberg

Chiefs and Bengals

For starters, I’m going to eliminate the Steelers from anything Broncos Country wants to see next Sunday. That offense is the only one, to this point, that has made the Broncos No. 1 defense look pedestrian. Antonio Brown might be the only receiver in the league who can make Chris Harris, Jr. look like an undrafted free agent. So congratulations to the Cincinnati Bengals, they’re moving on in my imaginary Broncos-centric fairy-land playoffs.

With the Bengals being the three-seed and the only team the Broncos cannot face in this round, that leaves us with the Chiefs or the Texans. I think at first glance you would want the Texans but here’s why I’m going to go the other way, a guy by the name of J.J. Watt. Heard of him? Throughout Watt’s career, he’s proven that he can completely change a game and destroy an offensive game plan all by himself. I’m just as likely to keep my eyes locked on a train-wreck as the next guy, but J.J. Watt on Michael Schofield or Tyler Polumbus might just be too gruesome for me. The Broncos offensive has struggled enough this year for me to believe a guy like Watt, complimented by the rest of that surging Texans defense, can shut down Peyton and the Broncos.

As Chris Harris, Jr. said on Friday, “Anytime you get a chance to rematch a team that beat you, you want it,” and the Chiefs give the Broncos just that. Peyton Manning, who already has a chip on his shoulder, would be out for blood against a Chiefs defense that forced him into the only benching of his career, and the Broncos as a whole would follow suit. Give me the Chiefs.

Ken Pomponio

Texans and Bengals

So who should denizens of Broncos Country be rooting for in Saturday’s AFC wild-card games? Come on, that’s old-extra-point-distance easy: Most definitely the home teams, the Houston Texans and Cincinnati Bengals. It’s simple. The two opposing teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers, accounted for half of the Orange & Blue’s four losses. The Chiefs have the familiarity and the defense to give the Broncos problems – yeah, a team with the league’s fifth-most takeaways (29) facing the team with the third-most giveaways (31) qualifies as a bad matchup – while the Steelers have the offensive firepower to keep any opposing defensive coordinator up nights, including the Son of the Bum himself, Wade Phillips. Need I remind Broncos backers that Ben Roethlisberger was the only opposing quarterback to top 300 passing yards against the Denver D, and Pittsburgh was the lone opponent to top 30 points. So root for the two underdogs, the relatively-inexperienced Texans and A.J. McCarron’s Bengals, and hope Houston is heading to the Mile High City a week from Sunday, the day after Cincy visits New England.

Dennis Best

Texans and Bengals

This is the one weekend a year that Broncos fans should be okay with their team not playing; this is also, in my opinion, the most important weekend of the NFL season. Even though the orange and blue won’t be on the field, that doesn’t mean they don’t have people to cheer for. Three surprise teams are playing this weekend: the Steelers, Chiefs, and Texans. One of them will have to travel to Denver to play the top seed next Sunday; let’s weigh the options.

Pittsburgh has beaten Denver already this season and has arguably the best offense in Football. They are fast off the line and wide receiver Antonio Brown can go off for 200+ yards at any given time. The Steelers might be the one team nobody wants to play this postseason. Plus, Denver allowed one team all year to go over 300-yards on offense, Pittsburgh. Denver fans do NOT want to see a streaking Steelers team in the postseason.

Kansas City has won ten in a row after starting the season 1-5. KC is playing their best football right now and has already beaten Denver this season with the help of stellar defensive play. Rookie cornerback Marcus Peters is tied for the league lead with eight interceptions and is looking like a strong candidate for defensive rookie of the year. Playing a division foe in the postseason is tough, especially one who has a win on Denver soil already this season, that’s not a good matchup,

Now, that brings me to the Houston Texans. A young, smart football team with a bulldozer of a defensive end in J.J. Watt. Houston, who won the AFC South after going 9-7, has weaknesses and the young roster has never been here before. As long Denver can hold the third best defense in check and keep Peyton Manning upright, Denver would win this game.