WEEK 1
AT KANSAS CITY
6:15 p.m., Sept. 14, ESPN
A “Monday Night Football” opener at Arrowhead, (likely) Patrick Mahomes’ return and the propensity of Sean Payton’s teams here to start slow? Thatap a recipe for disaster, right? Well, Denver’s also been good against the Chiefs recently. Bo Nix gets off to a rollicking start, Vance Joseph continues to do good work against Mahomes and the Broncos hype reaches a fever pitch.
Prediction: Broncos 24, Chiefs 16
WEEK 2
JACKSONVILLE
2:05 p.m., Sept. 20, KCNC-4
Small market alert! The Jaguars are defending AFC South champions, and they’ve got a terrific young play-calling head coach in Liam Coen. They were the only team to win in Denver during the regular season last year. They will not, however, make it two in a row. This time around, J.K. Dobbins is a difference-maker and the Broncos more effectively limit — though not without some struggle — Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence. A barnburner would be fun.
Prediction: Broncos 30, Jaguars 27
WEEK 3
L.A. RAMS
6:20 p.m., Sept. 27, KUSA-9
The dream start is dreamy until Sean McVay brings his team to Denver for a blockbuster (as far as Week 3 games go) Sunday night matchup. The Rams have depth, talent and one of the most daunting defensive lines out there with the addition of Myles Garrett. Matthew Stafford’s flanked by too much offensive talent. But what about a potential mid-February rematch on the Rams’ home turf?
Prediction: Rams 24, Broncos 17
WEEK 4
AT SAN FRANCISCO
2:25 p.m., Oct. 4, KCNC-4
What a year to draw the NFC West. And the Broncos get the entire division in a five-game span. Thatap a pretty wild schedule quirk. The Niners figure to be really good again this year unless their local substation causes a bunch of injuries again — Joking! Mostly joking! — and this will be a tall task. Christian McCaffrey puts the dagger in Denver with a wheel route called by Kyle Shanahan. Ouch.
Prediction: 49ers 20, Broncos 14
WEEK 5
AT L.A. CHARGERS
2:05 p.m., Oct. 11, KCNC-4
The Chargers lost defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, which is a big one. They gained offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, which is a big one. L.A. should be able to run the heck out of the ball, and they get two All-Pro tackles back from injury to protect Justin Herbert. This game is tougher because of the brutal stretch it falls in, though the SoFi crowd will be largely blue and orange. Wil Lutz’s first walk-off attempt feels right.
Prediction: Broncos 19, Chargers 17
WEEK 6
SEATTLE
6:15 p.m., Oct. 15, Prime
Hey, the Broncos have made it through a rugged opening five weeks at 3-2. That’ll play. Now, the Super Bowl champs roll into town on a short week. What if Bo Nix hadn’t broken his ankle in January? These teams probably would have played in February. Maybe they’ll make good in 2027. In the meantime, Mike MacDonald’s team is going to be a handful.
Prediction: Seahawks 24, Broncos 17
WEEK 7
AT ARIZONA
2:05 p.m., Oct. 25, KCNC-4
Davis Webb and Co. use the bye week to spend a little extra time tinkering with their plans and decide more outside zone, under center and play-action game is the ticket. Will it hold up the whole season? Hard to say from here, but the hapless Cardinals take the brunt of a creative burst from the Denver offense. Nix has had some stat-stuffer games in his career. This one goes near the top of the list.
Prediction: Broncos 44, Cardinals 17
WEEK 8
KANSAS CITY
2:25 p.m., Nov. 1, KCNC-4
The Chiefs, perhaps not surprisingly, find their footing quickly after losing the opener to the Broncos. They roll into Empower Field on a roll. This rivalry, though, has turned on its head. Payton made the Chiefs one of his primary goals and now, suddenly, he’s got their number. If Denver beats Mahomes twice this year, there will be no discounting the season sweep. Come to think of it, that might be too much to ask. One last dose of Travis Kelce magic proves bedeviling.
Prediction: Chiefs 26, Broncos 24
WEEK 9
AT CAROLINA
11 a.m., Nov. 8, KCNC-4
Itap kind of amazing that a road trip to a 2025 champion represents the start of the soft part of the Broncos schedule, but hey, here we are. Bryce Young has come a long way and the Dave Canelas/Dan Morgan regime has been a success overall so far. The Broncos, though, have too much pass rush and by this time will have a fully functional Nix/Jaylen Waddle connection rolling. Denver needs this game and gets it.
Prediction: Broncos 28, Panthers 17
WEEK 10
BYE
Normally a midseason bye is great, though the Broncos have benefitted greatly from having a later bye each of the past two years since they’ve been in postseason contention. A Week 6 TNF game and Week 10 bye is stacking the extra rest a bit early, though there’s more oddball game times to come. November, though, is too late for golfing in Idaho, so Payton gets a little R&R in Cabo instead.
WEEK 11
LAS VEGAS
2:25 p.m., Nov. 22, KCNC-4
Ah, at long last, the Raiders arrive on the Broncos’ schedule. This game would have so much more juice had Las Vegas hired Webb as its head coach. The only real question for the Silver and Black will be if No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza has taken over at QB for Kirk Cousins by this point. Either way, by the time this one is over, Mark Davis will wish he’d hired Webb. Or Vance Joseph. Or both.
Prediction: Broncos 27, Raiders 13
WEEK 12
AT PITTSBURGH
1 p.m., Nov. 27, Prime
Black Friday in the Steel City. This game will draw an absolutely massive number of eyeballs to Amazon on the biggest retail day of the year. Yay, corporate synergies! Last time the Broncos saw Aaron Rodgers, he was the New York Jets quarterback and they hit him a lot of times in the rain at MetLife Stadium in 2024. How about snow instead, three rivers instead of the Jersey swamp and probably a lot more hits on the by then nearly 43-year-old. One of them, like ‘24, will be a game-sealer.
Prediction: Broncos 21, Steelers 20
WEEK 13
MIAMI
2:05 p.m., Dec. 6, KDVR-31
When the Broncos made the playoffs in 2024, they did so with a whopping $89 million in dead cap. It was the biggest raw number of all time and just barely No. 2 by percentage of the cap ($34.8%). The Dolphins, as of this writing, have $179 million in dead cap. Thatap a shade under 60%. They have $112 million in actual player contracts on their roster. Preposterous. Waddle will score a pair of touchdowns against his own team and three if Miami at some point just runs out of players.
Prediction: Broncos 35, Dolphins 20
WEEK 14
AT N.Y. JETS
11 a.m., Dec. 13, KCNC-4
Don’t look now but the Broncos have won five in a row to get to 8-4 and right into the postseason mix. The Jets might as well be a division team at this point because they’ve ended up on Denver’s schedule nearly every year. This will be the seventh straight season they’ve played and the ninth matchup in 10 years. Payton’s team has won the past two, but they’ve been 11-10 (in London last year) and 10-9 in 2024. Is that a bad sign? This one could be ugly and still a relative breeze.
Prediction: Broncos 17, Jets 9
WEEK 15
AT LAS VEGAS
2:25 p.m., Dec. 20, KCNC-4
This one has all the trappings of a trap game. The Broncos are likely to be big favorites, itap in Vegas after playing on the East Coast before and itap heading into a short week before a titanic matchup against Josh Allen and Co. on Christmas Day at Empower Field. One of the hallmarks of Payton’s tenure in Denver, though? The Broncos have rarely lost games like this, where they’re clearly expected to win.
Prediction: Broncos 26, Raiders 14
WEEK 16
BUFFALO
2:30 p.m., Dec. 25, Netflix
If the season goes anything close to the way it seems primed to, this can be just a tremendous matchup. Standalone on Christmas Day. A rematch of a January postseason classic. Maybe No. 1 seed and almost certainly some form of postseason implications. Josh Allen. Bo Nix. Their mutual bestie Davis Webb. Sean Payton vs. protege Joe Brady. On and on and on. It has the chance to be so, so good. The bet here: This time, the kid from Wyoming does not turn the ball over four times.
Prediction: Bills 28, Broncos 27
WEEK 17
AT NEW ENGLAND
TBD
If there’s a game that will have some crazy travel plans scrambled by weather, this is the obvious favorite. Early January at Foxborough is just asking for a blizzard. Not just in the second half, either. Sorry. Buffalo and New England back-to-back down the stretch of this season might be vertigo-inducing, but so might the AFC playoff race itself. These teams fitted their third-year quarterbacks with A.J. Brown and Waddle this offseason. They know itap go time. They might even play again a couple weeks later.
Prediction: Patriots 23, Broncos 20
WEEK 18
L.A. CHARGERS
TBD
Man, back-to-back one-score losses to fall to 10-6 going into the final week of the season. After all the one-score magic in 2025, that would be enough to cause a little acid reflux. We’ve been calling for a Broncos Week 18 game where both teams need it for two years now. The third time is going to be the charm. Or, at least, that would be fun. With the way the AFC shakes out this year, 10-7 might be pretty bubble-ish. A team could get left off. In this case, itap at least for a playoff spot and maybe for the West division title. No pinky promises that J.K. Dobbins has played all 16 games, but he hammers home a winner late in this one. An 11-6 regular season. On to the postseason.
Prediction: Broncos 24, Chargers 22
