DENVER — When the Broncos clinched the team's first playoff berth since 2015 with a Week 18 shutout vs. the Kansas City Chiefs, Head Coach Sean Payton shared a message about his team that he had shared several times before.

"Young and hungry can sometimes be very dangerous," Payton said Sunday.

With a 38-0 win, Denver left no doubt that a team many national analysts projected to win fewer than six games this season is both hungry and dangerous, and it's a team eager to embrace yet another challenge with a trip to Buffalo on wild-card weekend.

"It's fun to clinch a playoff spot in the last game of the year against a divisional team, which is kind of a great story, but now playoff time starts," quarterback Bo Nix said following Sunday's win. "Our goal wasn't just to make the playoffs, even though it hadn't been done in a while. It's for a lot more than that. We're excited about the opportunity. I know it's going to be tough, but we've got a game to play."

Denver's goal to earn a playoff berth may have taken shape internally early in the season, but with a rookie quarterback and several newcomers around him, questions circulated externally about the potential of the team.

And as Denver sat 0-2 heading into a two-week East Coast road trip, those doubts and questions were perhaps louder than ever. The Broncos showed their first flash of resiliency, though, as they kicked off a four-game win streak that Payton said was essential in allowing the team to build its identity and discover its true potential.

"Most NFL seasons are filled with highs and lows," Payton said. "Do you have the grit and the fortitude to weather the lows? [Our record was] 0-2 and going on the road, we got to get a win in Tampa. That was a that was an important stretch, that East Coast swing. When you can have some success, then you can have some confidence. Then it becomes something that can repeat itself. It's hard to have confidence if you haven't really demonstrated it yet, and so we began to see young players thrive in certain positions, some veterans, some key veterans, come in and fill in roles for us. So, it was a number of different transactions that worked out. I'm proud of them."

Defensive lineman Zach Allen — who noted he saw the potential of the team as early as OTAs — said this confidence was tested several times throughout the season. He pointed to the unique bond of the group, though, with allowing the team to bounce back and remain in control of its own destiny throughout the highs and lows of the season.

"[We've] got a really mature group," Allen said. "… We just don't let anything on the outside come in. There were definitely points in the season — first Kansas City, last week [vs. the Bengals], [the] Chargers — it really could have ended a team's season or cut the locker room. It made us closer and stronger. The fact that we're in this position says a lot, and we're excited about it."

And for outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, the internal belief that took hold before the season — despite the outside noise — played a huge role in allowing the Broncos to navigate that adversity and get to where they knew they could always be.

"We all saw it coming into the season," Bonitto said of the team's potential. "Everybody had us winning three games, four games, five games. We had to deal with that during throughout the preseason, knowing we were a better team than that, and we couldn't wait to show it. And we are finally here."

Now that they are here, cornerback Pat Surtain II noted it's important not to lose sight of the road still ahead. While ending a eight-season playoff drought in front of a home crowd was a special moment for the entire team — and for several players who will now make the first postseason appearance of their careers — the team knows the journey is far from over.

"As a team, as a whole, we know we're not finished yet," Surtain said. "The job's not done. We're looking to go into Buffalo and go into a great atmosphere that Buffalo has and get a win at the end of the day. And I think that's what this team's mindset is heading towards, is Buffalo. I mean obviously, it's great to reach the playoffs, but I feel like we've got more. Our destiny means much more than just one playoff game, for sure. We're looking to go on a deep run."

As Denver now looks to show the league its potential on the biggest stage, the team is prepared to silence any outside noise once again.

"It makes it way sweeter," wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. said of earning a playoff berth despite preseason predictions. "From 32nd to the playoffs, that's as sweet as it gets."