Can Denver make NFL playoffs from 6-6?

Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

If the Broncos are able to make it into the playoffs, do you think that they can go toe to toe with any of the other AFC teams that make it too? I look forward to reading this column every week. You do a great job with it. Thanks.

— Mike, Omaha, Neb.

Hey Mike, thanks for writing in. Pick the evidence you want to use on this one. A 24-9 Week 8 win against Kansas City says yes. Seventy in Miami says no. The answer, of course, is the movie title. Any given Sunday (or Saturday or Monday or Thursday) you’re just not quite sure what’s going to happen.

Certainly going on the road Wild Card weekend against pretty much anybody and perhaps a No. 2 seed — the Chiefs, Dolphins, Baltimore or Jacksonville — means being an underdog. But let’s just play out the string to where the Broncos do get in. That almost assuredly means winning at least four of their last five. Which means they’ll have won, minimum, nine of their past 11. A home playoff team is probably looking at that and saying, “Well, that’s no walk in the park.”

The more general answer to your question is I don’t think it’s being too negative to suggest that this team isn’t a season-long match for the AFC’s best at this point. The beautiful thing about the playoffs, though, is that if you get in, metrics and power rankings and all that stuff doesn’t matter a lick. Everybody has a chance.

Hey Parker, can you tell me why Alex Singleton got penalized for jawing at C.J. Stroud but nothing happened to the quarterback even though he was jawing back just as hard?

— Mark, Arvada

Hey Mark, thanks as always for writing! Singleton didn’t actually get the flag for jawing. He got it for pushing Stroud. It wasn’t overly violent or anything, but Singleton instigated it and pushed him. And he’d been kind of mixed up with guys the two plays before that, too, which officiating crews typically notice.

Could there have been a matching penalty for the guys that shoved Singleton back as they got separated? Sure. But that would have been a bailout of a dumb penalty in the first place more than it would have been justice. Sean Payton’s not one to mince words about what he thinks regarding officiating and his take Monday was, “we got baited into a personal foul by a rookie.”

Bingo.

Hello from Finland! I wanna know why the Broncos did not claim Zach Ertz from waivers. They could have juggled the money and they need help at tight end.

— Jude, Lahti, Finland

Yo Jude, thanks as always for writing in! Good question. A lot of times, the contract is the reason why a player goes unsigned. The Broncos would have had to move some money around to get Ertz in, as you said, but the rest of this season was about $2.5 million, which was far less than, say, linebacker Shaq Leonard ($6 million plus before he cleared waivers), but not nothing.

I thought it was at least possible given Denver’s lack of receiving punch at the position this year. He had 27 catches in Arizona and, going into last week, the Broncos’ tight ends had 25. Now they have 26. In these situations, it’s always worth noting that nobody else claimed him either.

Hard to bank on second-year man Greg Dulcich staying healthy at this point, but maybe the Broncos will get him back for a few games down the stretch here. He was back around the team working out on the side field last week, the first we’d seen him since Week 6. Or maybe they’ll kick the tires on Ertz now that he’s a free agent.

Hi Parker, I haven’t seen much mention about the strength and conditioning changes implemented by Sean Payton in the offseason. The Broncos — especially the OL — seem to be remarkably healthy compared to previous years. Thoughts?

— Dan Smith, Sandy, Ore.

Hey Dan, good question! Trust me, if the Broncos were making Beau Lowery and his group available for interviews, we’d be all over it. But they don’t, just like most teams don’t make those types open to reporters.

You’re right, though. The Broncos have been remarkably healthy. They lost a couple guys in training camp but otherwise you can count on one hand the number of in-game injuries they’ve had that have cost players future playing time — Dulcich twice, P.J. Locke and that’s really about it. There are a couple to monitor this week between Pat Surtain’s knee and Quinn Meinerz’s shoulder, though they were both able to return Sunday against Houston.