ENGLEWOOD • Twelve-year veteran Kareem Jackson was the first player to speak in the locker Sunday night following the Broncos’ 22-9 loss to the Chiefs.

Denver’s starting safety has played more football in the NFL than any other player on the Broncos’ roster.

And the 33-year-old was straightforward after the loss, saying the Broncos have five games left and each of them have to be treated with a “playoff mentality.”

“I was just letting the guys know that everything we want is still in front of us,” Jackson said Monday. “Five games left, most of those are division games. Everything we want is right in front of us.

“We’ve just got to take it a day at a time, a practice at a time, a game at a time. We’ve played great football before.”

The Broncos have played well at times this season, even if their 6-6 record doesn’t totally reflect it. Wins over the Cowboys and Chargers have shown they can play with some of the best teams in the league.

“After getting wins like that, just telling the guys that should be the standard every week,” Jackson said. “We go out and perform like that and then we come out and have letdowns — the Eagles game and a couple other games. Team-wise, for me, (Sunday) was a letdown. We’ve just got to continue to get better, continue work and continue to do what we need to do to perform at a high level.”

Sunday night’s performance was certainly not what the Broncos had hoped for, but Jackson is right: they are still in the thick of it with games against the Lions, Bengals, Raiders, Chargers and Chiefs remaining.

While they may sit in last place in the AFC West right now, if they win their final three division games, they could technically sit in first or second place by season’s end and make the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. And for now, that’s what the Broncos are holding onto.

“I think we’re a better team than we have been in the past. As simple as that,” coach Vic Fangio said. “I’d like to see us have the same attitude we had last week. We had a great week of preparation. We were focused. We were ready. We played physical and hard. I’d like to see us do the same thing in preparation for the game this week.”