The 1996 Denver Broncos season was the team's 37th year in professional football and its 27th with the National Football League. The Broncos finished the season with 13 wins and 3 losses, winning the AFC West and earning the top seed in the AFC Playoffs. They were defeated, however, by a score of 30–27 by the 9–7 Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional round. John Elway says that the Jaguars loss was probably the most embarrassing loss of his career up to that point, because they were the top seeded team in the NFL and were favored to win the Super Bowl by many.