The Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs will have their first meeting of the season land on the first edition of "Monday Night Football" in 2026.
The Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs will engage in what should be an exciting divisional matchup to finish off Week 1 of the 2026 National Football League season on “Monday Night Football.”
These two teams had vastly different experiences in 2025 – the Broncos won the American Football Conference West division and took home the first-round bye in the playoffs after going 14-3, displaying a dominant defense and never-say-die offense that thrived late in games.
The Chiefs on the other hand endured their first postseason-less season since 2014 and their future Hall of Fame quarterback suffered the worst injury of his career, tearing two ligaments in his knee during Week 15; the week Kansas City was eliminated from the playoffs.
While Denver came up short in the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots, who went on to lose to the Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl blowout, the team showed that it was capable of making a deep run and are destined to make it back.
The health of starting quarterback Bo Nix may have made all the difference in the loss to New England, but that isn’t a good excuse for head coach Sean Payton or the players, and they will attempt to do what they couldn’t do last season.
And that starts in Week 1 against the rival Chiefs, and I believe Denver has the upper hand against a Kansas City team that improved offensively but regressed on the defensive side of the ball.
You could argue that the same thing happened to the Broncos, but the losses aren’t as substantial. The addition of star receiver Jaylen Waddle improves Denver’s passing game tremendously and the defense is still a top-5 unit even without John Franklin-Myers.
The Chiefs brought in running back Kenneth Walker III to drastically improve their running game but lost their two best cornerbacks to the Los Angeles Rams and are dealing with multiple key injuries on both sides of the ball.
Getting Patrick Mahomes back will certainly help Kansas City’s chances, but the Broncos have done well against him and the Chiefs over the last few meetings.
“In four games against Mahomes since 2023, Broncos DC Vance Joseph's group has held Mahomes to a 55.7 QBR, the lowest for Mahomes against any coordinator he has faced at least four times in that span,” ESPN’s Jeff Legwold wrote Friday.
Denver is 3-1 in those four games with one of the wins coming at Arrowhead Stadium. With Mahomes probably rusty in his first game back, I expect the Broncos to kick off their season 1-0.
