The Broncos are skipping syllabus week and jumping right into midterms and finals this fall.
Sean Payton’s 2026 team is deep, talented and heads into its offseason program with perhaps as few pressing roster questions as any team in football.
Even with that continuity and talent, though, the Broncos are in for a rugged start to the regular season. That became clear Thursday evening when the NFL released its entire 272-game regular-season slate.
Denver already knew it was opening the year on “Monday Night Football” at Kansas City, which may mark quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ return from a torn ACL and LCL in December. It is the first time in Broncos franchise history the club has started the season at Kansas City.
The Chiefs, who won the division nine straight years and are widely expected to bounce right back to contention this fall, are almost the lightweight on the first third of Denver’s schedule.
After the division rival to open the year, the Broncos play five straight 2025 playoff teams, including a Sept. 20 home opener against Jacksonville — Liam Cohen’s team was the only one to beat the Broncos at Empower Field last year during the regular season — and a home Sunday night showdown Sept. 27 against the Los Angeles Rams.
That home pair is followed by back-to-back road trips to San Francisco and the Los Angeles Chargers before Denver returns home on a short week to host Super Bowl-champion Seattle on Thursday Night Football in mid-October.
The first six coaches the Broncos face this fall: Andy Reid, Cohen, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Macdonald.
By the time Payton’s experienced bunch hits a mini bye week ahead of a Week 7 trip to Arizona, it will be battle-tested and its true colors likely at least partially revealed.
The schedule isn’t easy from there, but it does present an opportunity to get hot. After a Week 10 bye, Denver faces Las Vegas twice, Miami and the New York Jets over a five-week span that also includes a Black Friday standalone game at Pittsburgh.
If the Broncos hit the home stretch feeling playoff vibes, they’re also going to catch a bit of deja vu. The final three games start with the club’s playoff opponents from January, in Weeks 126-17, in Buffalo and New England. Then the regular season closes just as it did a year ago, with Harbaugh’s Chargers visiting Empower Field.
The rematch with Buffalo is on Christmas Day, marking the fifth standalone game of the regular season for Denver. That is among the league’s best in terms of prime-time television slots and shows, and Denver, once again, is a premium placement for the league.
There’s every chance, given the NFL’s flex scheduling and the league’s policy of leaving the final two weeks of the schedule to be determined late in the season, that the Broncos could play in standalone windows a half-dozen or more times.
Denver plays 10 games against teams that were in the 2025 playoffs and two more against the Chiefs, who missed for the first time in a decade. The Broncos won the division by three games last year and, according to some betting services, have the third-best odds of winning this year behind the Chiefs and Chargers.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the teams that are in our division. Everybody is trying to get better, and thatap the biggest takeaway,” owner and CEO Greg Penner said earlier this spring “We’re never going to feel satisfied. We’re not going to feel like we’ve done enough, so we’re always going to be pushing for that next level and what it takes to get there.”
This regular season will be a gauntlet.
They are already slated to play on four different days: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and twice on Friday, during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
They will have a target on their backs.
They start at Arrowhead and the road looks rough for quite a while after that.
They kick off in four months.
Let the countdown begin.
Preseason info. The Broncos open the preseason at 5 p.m. Aug. 14 at Atlanta. They then host preseason games against Green Bay (Aug. 20-23) and Minnesota (Aug. 27-30), though exact dates and start times have not yet been announced. Preseason games will be broadcast locally by 9News.
Denver Broncos 2026 schedule
| Week | Date | Opponent | Time | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sept. 14 (Mon.) | at Kansas City | 6:15 p.m. | ESPN |
| 2 | Sept. 20 | Jacksonville | 2:05 p.m. | CBS |
| 3 | Sept. 27 | L.A. Rams | 6:20 p.m. | NBC |
| 4 | Oct. 4 | at San Francisco | 2:25 p.m. | CBS |
| 5 | Oct. 11 | at L.A. Chargers | 2:05 p.m. | CBS |
| 6 | Oct. 15 (Thurs.) | Seattle | 6:15 p.m. | Amazon |
| 7 | Oct. 25 | at Arizona | 2:05 p.m. | CBS |
| 8 | Nov. 1 | Kansas City | 2:25 p.m. | CBS |
| 9 | Nov. 8 | at Carolina | 11 a.m. | CBS |
| 10 | Nov. 15 | Bye | ||
| 11 | Nov. 22 | Las Vegas | 2:25 p.m. | CBS |
| 12 | Nov. 27 (Fri.) | at Pittsburgh | 1 p.m. | Amazon |
| 13 | Dec. 6 | Miami | 2:05 p.m. | Fox |
| 14 | Dec. 13 | at N.Y. Jets | 11 a.m. | CBS |
| 15 | Dec. 20 | at Las Vegas | 2:25 p.m. | CBS |
| 16 | Dec. 25 (Fri.) | Buffalo | 2:30 p.m. | Netflix |
| 17 | Jan. 2-3 | at New England | TBD | TBD |
| 18 | Jan. 9-10 | L.A. Chargers | TBD | TBD |
