Chargers throw playoff bulletin-board shot at Broncos before Patriots game

The Chargers lobbed some disrespect at the Broncos before the playoffs.

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The Los Angeles Chargers lost to the Denver Broncos in Week 18 ahead of the NFL playoffs. 

From the sounds of it, though, the Chargers almost feel like there should be an asterisk next to the end result. 

Those Chargers, after all, rested the majority of their starters for the game. Trey Lance’s offense couldn’t get it done while executing a vanilla attack behind a line of scattered backups. 

But the Chargers defense quietly had a really good day. They limited Bo Nix to 141 passing yards on 23 attempts and held the Broncos rushing attack to 3.7 yards per carry over 31 attempts.

Denver’s only touchdown on the day was a pick-six of Lance. 

RELATED: Chargers open as surprisingly small underdogs at 14-win Patriots in Wild Card game

Chargers veteran takes shots at Broncos

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

In the postgame tunnel, Chargers veteran safety Tony Jefferson was caught on camera blasting the Broncos in an expletive-filled rant. 

ESPN’s Kris Rhim captured the video and summarized what Jefferson had to say: 

"They suck bro. I don’t care. I have no respect for them I don’t like nobody on the broncos. My homie JL Skinner I f—- with him though. Broncos suck, though.”

So, no love lost between the AFC West rivals. 

And it’s hard to blame the Chargers for feeling confident after that defensive showing on the road. They beat the Broncos already once this year. It would be pretty easy to suggest that, had they played starters, they would have completed the season sweep of both the Broncos and the entire AFC West.

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Granted, the Chargers have to turn around and deal with the New England Patriots in the wild-card round. If they can get past that opponent in Foxboro, they could still have a shot at getting the Broncos in a rematch where all the starters actually play and things aren’t so vanilla on the field. 

Until then? The Chargers now have some pretty strong bulletin-board material out there for the Broncos. The Patriots might just weaponize it into a “they’re looking past us” sort of thing, too.

That Chargers vs. Patriots encounter is in the Sunday night primetime slot at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. As the top seed in the AFC, the Broncos are on a bye this week.

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