Histoically, the Raiders.
More recent history, the Chiefs
Last few years, the Chargers.

The way they’ve embarrassed us in the last few years make them currently our biggest rival… It’s like they got the Broncos making out with their cousin, THAT embarrassed

The Raiders will always hold the “traditional” rivalry spot…

Never have considered KC as huge

But, for me, I think that SD has taken over the top spot and will likely be there for some time

Definitely the Raiders are the most hated, but the Chargers are currently our greatest rival.

and sad as it is, I just PLAIN FEEL SORRY for the Raiders. The Chiefs are just non descript blah!

I voted for them because I tend to look at “big picture”….

SD is more of a prima donna that I just want to slap in the mouth! :O

boltar and the sparkless

They are our first and oldest rivalry from the AFL days.

in both KC and Oakland. It would probably be more accurate to say the Broncos are rivals with all three of their AFC West opponents. My belief at the moment is the biggest rival right now is San Diego. Winning has a lot to do with that. SD is the target for winning the division, because they have been winning the last several years and taking something we believe belongs to the Broncos; the AFC West crown.

What do the players say about this question? That would provide an even better look.

Will always be the biggest rivalry to me. Raiders games are my favorite two weeks of the year. Well here lately it has been. The Raiders fans are so much more passionate then fans of the other two. Lets face it they are insane. Fans make a rivalry and I cant think of one that has fans that hate each more than us and them. If you had to choose who to sit next to on a plane… Raiders fan, Cheifs fan, or Chargers fan? The Raiders fan would always be last on my list…

There was no context provide for timeline, so I took it to mean right now, at this moment who do I consider our biggest rival. Oakland is just pathetic and KC is, as Boydy said, non descript. So I had to go with the Chargers who have a made a habit of whipping us recently, so the rivaly with them is full, especially with the way we took care of them in SD. I have a terrible feeling that they are going to reciprocate in kind this Sunday.

The Dolts have mattered to us for a matter of 5 years or so, if not fewer. Before that? I couldn’t have cared less about them. Their sole purpose was for us to beat them.

Arrowhead Pride put up a link to this, so I moseyed on over to check this out. Good to see we’re not in your guys’ cross hairs. lol.

I didn’t vote, but I think I’d vote SD if I did, due to your guys’ recent history.

It’s interesting, because I get the sense that if AP did a poll for our rival, it would go Raiders with about 90%, DEN with 6% and SD with 4%.

It has to be San Diego. We are battling them for the Division.

one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess b : one striving for competitive advantage

The last half-decade, the sole legitimate rival to the AFC West has been the Chargers. They are currently our biggest rival, no question. The Chiefs need to find out who they are again before they can be called a rival. The Raiders are a great historical rival (especially fun with the added hate between Al and Shanny the last decade), but they are more pathetic than competative. Still, nothing like Raiders week.

My personal favorite sports rivalry (of recent history anyway) is still the Avs-Wings of the turn of the century. The players hated each other. the fans hated each other. Both teams were the tops with future HOF players on both sides, fantastic coaches, and bitter competition. That rivalry is dead. Avs faithful still hate the wings, but until we can prove competative again (which it looks like we are at least turning it around – yay!), then it can’t be considered a real rivalry. Same with the Raiders. When/if they ever get back to being good-to-great, they will beat out SD for the top rivalry spot.

Without question… Very little compares to the satisfaction of destroying the raiders (even if they are 0-16 caliber).

It may not be the dictionary definition, but my take on rivalry is “if we could only win two games all season, who would they be against?” The chargers are punks, but I’d still rather sweep the raiders…

From a purely competitive standpoint, it’s Phyllis and his Merrimen all the way.

Also, I think Bronco fans dislike the Chargers because win or lose, in good times or in bad, there are many San Diego players who don’t conduct themselves on or off the field that, let’s say, “professionally”. Shaun Phillips, Rivers, etc. And it’s too bad because I respect Phillip Rivers talent and on the field abilities quite a bit. It’s too bad he’s an immature punk.

division rival is threatening us for the division title.

Right now, the Chargers are the biggest rival.

As much as I don’t like Rivers and smirk every time SD hires coaches like Marty and Norv, I was raised to be a raider hater. The OAK/DEN games are always heated. I don’t care if they have that fat guy throwing the ball or Gradkowwkeskadi or whoever under center, I love to beat them. Plus no matter their record, seems like they always manage to beat us once a year. ugh!

…the last half of a woefully underachieving decade for the very talented Chargers, and they have been the most insignificant AFC West team since the early, early years of the AFL. Yeah, the Dan Fouts era produced some high powered offensive teams, but the Chargers have always been dogged by an institutional lack of character and heart. Despise them as I might— and I do— they don’t deserve to be anybody’s biggest rival. They’ve spent many many more seasons being the ‘two given wins’ on the schedule than KC or Oakland ever will— though the modern Raiders are giving them a run for their hapless money.

I guess you’d have to remember back to the days that the Raiders mocked, taunted and completely disrespected the Broncos to understand that if the Raiders never beat the Broncos again, it still wouldn’t be enough. The Raiders are far and away the Broncos biggest rival, IMO.

because I’m looking at last few years and:
they’ve been the team that Denver has had the most important games with;
they’ve been the only other team in the AFC West that hasn’t stunk (sorry Arrowhead guest);
their fans are amazingly cocky about the rivalry, given their team has never won a super bowl, has a history of playoff failure, and really hasn’t done much of anything else.

It’s just been a long while since the Raiders have been competitive and until the Crypt Keeper is sent away I can’t see voting for them here.

It’s the Colts, because I lived in Indiana from ‘02-’06, and suffering those two huge playoff losses while surrounded by Peyton Manning fanboys really seared the hate into my braid. This will probably wear off as I haven’t lived there for 3 years, but I still have a lot of friends who are Colts fans…so it may take a while.

I know it’s not one of the options, but that would be my vote.

because that is the team that is standing in our way of getting back to where we want to be. It was the Raiders, however for it to be a rivalry both teams need to be competitive and both the Raiders and the Chiefs haven’t been competitive in the AFC West for some time.

Every team in the division has held that distinction at one point or another. Right now it is SD without a doubt.

Always has been and always will be IMO.

To put it in context, I’ve been a fan since ~95.

Chargers are annoying.
Chiefs are respected.
Raiders are hated.

That’s how I see them.

We can’t have a rivalry with bad teams (raidas and chefs), where’s the spirit in that? Now when the tide changes and they start being actual competition then we’ll take another look, but right now, it’s the dolts.

my definition of a sucessful season is 2 wins against Oakland; anything else is gravy.

I get that it’s the Chargers we’ll be in a race against to see who wins the division, but where’s the fun in cheering against whoever happens to be the second best team in the AFC West. Pick somebody to hate, and live it!!

It’s the Raider’s – they have beaten Us more times than We’ve beaten them.

We own the Chargers overall, and I honestly don’t recall offhand what Our overall record is against the Chiefs, but if I remember (vaguely) correctly, they’re in between the Us vs. Chargers overall, and Us vs. Raiders overall. I could be wrong, in that the Chiefs have beaten Us more than we’ve beaten them, and that they’ve beaten Us more times than the Raiders have…. I’ll have to check it out when I get home.

But it always has been, and to me, always will be the Raiders (KC would be second, SD third because they’re worthless except for this decade).

But IMO its always been a 3 way rivalry to me, KC/oak/Den. Sd is and always be an afterthought to me. Right SD is annoying like a knat. They dont have a history of sustaining consistent winning. This is their longest sustained winning seasons (.500 teams dont count) Since the 60’s. The majority of the SD fans I come across are ill informed of their past and think the Chargers began in 2004. (kind of like the majority of Pats fans began in 2001) Granted there are some well spoken highly knowledgeable Bolt fans out there, its just I dont run across them too awful much. But I do understand most fans here thinking its SD, and right now it is based on that Since 04 SD has won the west all but one year while Denver has finished 2nd except 05.

I hate the bloody chargers. I hate everything about that franchise. their bandwagon fans, their complete garbage ownership (I know from personal experience) and their completely disgusting history. Oh, and I hate Dan Fouts, Phillip Rivers, Shawne “epileptic” Merriman and the rest of their bottom feeding lowlife players.

I know it’s probably childish, but I have an undying hatred for anything baby blue and piss yellow.

and I don’t like it one bit.

Oakland carried that mantle for years, but a rival is someone you are forced to take seriously, and the Raiders have finally lived down to the disrespect I always had for them.

Don’t get me wrong. Beating the Raiders is always satisfying, but for them to reclaim that place as our biggest rival, they have to become competitive again. I long for the days when the Bolts were bottomfeeders and the Raiders were our biggest challengers — taking them on really felt like good vs. evil.

I hope they do, because taking on the Bolts always seems a little joyless, imho, whether it’s a crushing defeat that leaves a lingering odor of @$$ in the air, or a victory that, for some reason just never seems satisfying enough.

For the same reason that the Seahawks were never a rival when they were in our division and when you kick a puppy it is not a big rival. There must be a contest to be a rivalry.

I don’t care that they suck. No team will ever replace the faiders. But I have a special hatred for Phillip Rivers though.

oakland i cant hate kc i am on ap too much and they theat me like a chiefs fan evan through i bleed ornage and bule and sd i like john and richard too much everything goes in stages in life our time will come maybe next year because i am sorry to say sd will most will the divion but next year we play the nfc west afc south and if we finsh 2 either mia or nyj and in the north ciny or pitt

forever and ever

Most hated person in the division at the moment = Rivers by far!

I admit though that I am biased. I would hate San Diego even if I weren’t a Denver fan.