Here are the 20 best games to watch this season.

Week 1

New England at Seattle
6:20 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 9, KUSA-9

Drake Maye likely had offseason nightmares from the pounding he took from Seattle’s defense in the Super Bowl. Will the Patriots be able to exact some revenge on a night when Seattle raises its second championship banner? Insider tip: Mike Vrabel can’t wait to get back to playing actual games after an offseason full of tabloid headlines.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia
6:35 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 10, Netflix

The NFL’s first game Down Under should be saltier than Vegemite. Kyle Shanahan loves nothing more than beating his old friend Sean McVay at SoFi Stadium with 49ers fans taking over the joint, which is likely why McVay worked the NFL’s scheduling levers to play a neutral site game — after a 16-hour flight. Makes sense, since the Niners have won three of their last four in Los Angeles.

Denver at Kansas City
6:15 p.m., Monday, Sept. 14, ESPN

“Are you ready for some football?” Yeah, you can say that again for two fan bases ready to put 2025 in the rearview. Will Patrick Mahomes be rusty coming off knee surgery? Are the Broncos a legit Super Bowl contender? Does Sean Payton love rivalry games in which his team isn’t favored? You know the answer to that last one. We’ll find out the rest under the lights in Kansas City.

Week 2

Dallas at Washington
2:25 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20, KDVR-31

Will the Eagles have any serious competition for their third straight NFC East crown in 2026? This early-season tilt between the Cowboys and Commanders should provide some clues.

Week 3

Baltimore at Dallas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2:25 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 27, KUNC-4

Jerry Jones loves spectacle, so it makes sense that America’s Team would play in the legendary Maracanã Stadium in the NFL’s first regular season game in Rio. Dak Prescott and the Cowboys receivers against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens should provide some offensive fireworks for the fans in Brazil.

Week 4

Los Angeles Rams at Philadelphia
11 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 4, KDVR-31

The odds-on Super Bowl favorites face a brutal opening stretch against the rival Niners (in Australia), Giants, Broncos, Eagles and Bills — which includes back-to-back road games in Denver and Philadelphia. The Eagles have also won the last four matchups in this series. Could this be an NFC Championship preview?

Week 5

Buffalo at Los Angeles Rams
6:15 p.m., Monday, Oct. 12, ESPN

In a quarterback league, it doesn’t get much better than old gunslinger Matthew Stafford firing away against Josh Allen at home. Outside of the Broncos, Allen won’t face a more ferocious pass rush this season, especially if Aaron Donald comes out of retirement.

Week 6

Dallas at Green Bay
6:20 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 28, KUSA-9

Does the winner of this game break the 40-40 tie from last season? The Packers have won eight of the last 10 in this series, including a 48-32 thrashing in the NFC wild card at Jerry World after the 2024 season that still has Cowboys fans sore.

Week 7

Kansas City at Seattle
6:20 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25, KUSA-9

It����ap the Kenneth Walker III Bowl and a possible Super Bowl preview when last year’s title-game MVP faces his former team in Seattle. Yards won’t come easy for Walker against Mike MacDonald’s swarming unit, especially with the 12s in full throat. Old AFC West fans and Hall of Famer Warren Moon will love Seattle rocking its crisp royal blue throwbacks against the Chiefs for a national audience.

Week 9

Houston at Los Angeles Chargers
2:05 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 8, KCNC-4

The Texans have won the last two against the Bolts, including a playoff win after the 2024 season. Will the addition of QB whisperer Mike McDaniel tip the scales for Justin Herbert and Los Angeles against DeMeco Ryan’s top-ranked defense from last season?

Week 12

Kansas City at Buffalo
6:20 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 26, KUSA-9

The only thing better than an extra slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? A renewal of the NFL’s best QB duel. Josh Allen is sick of the narrative that he can only beat Patrick Mahomes during the regular season, but so far that����ap true. These two rivals have split their last 10 meetings, but Mahomes is 4-0 in playoff games. This will be the first time the two rivals square off at Buffalo’s new Highmark Stadium.

Denver at Pittsburgh
1 p.m., Friday, No. 27, Prime Video

Skip the lines at the mall and feast on leftovers and Broncos-Steelers on Black Friday. It����ap the last time (presumably) that the Broncos will face Aaron Rodgers, who is 2-2 against Denver entering his 22nd NFL season.

New York Jets at Miami
11 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 29, KUNC-4

Geno Smith vs. Malik Willis looks like one of the worst games of the regular season, but there could be a big prize at stake: The right to draft Archibald Charles Manning at No. 1. The Dolphins, carrying an NFL record $179.2 million in dead cap space, are projected to win only 4.5 games, while the Jets are projected to win just 5.5. The Cardinals, of course, might be worse than both. Embrace the suck.

Week 13

Buffalo at New England
2:25 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 6, KCNC-4

These two division rivals would’ve faced off for the right to go to the Super Bowl last January if not for Ja’Quan McMillian’s season-saving pick in an AFC wild-card thriller in Denver. (Yeah, don’t bring it up with Bills fans, who are still convinced it was a Brandin Cooks catch.) The Bills are looking to recapture the AFC East crown after the Patriots’ magical run in 2025.

Week 15

Baltimore at Pittsburgh
11 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 20, KUNC-4

John Harbaugh is coaching the Giants. Mike Tomlin is analyzing games in the NBC studio. Doesn’t matter — the antipathy between these two franchises is still as strong as ever, especially after last year’s rock fight to close the NFL regular season. The Ravens, a trendy Super Bowl favorite, would certainly love to get payback after a missed FG cost them the playoffs and cost Harbaugh his job. Mike McCarthy and Jesse Minter, you’ve got next.

Week 16

Green Bay at Chicago
11 a.m., Friday, Dec. 25, Netflix

Da Bears and the Packers at frigid Soldier Field, renewing the NFL’s oldest rivalry, is the perfect gift to open after you get done with the presents under the tree. Expect the Packers to be like your nephew who didn’t get “Grand Theft Auto VI” for Christmas, too, after blowing both tilts in the Second City last season. That includes a brutal playoff loss in which the Bears, trailing 21-3 at halftime, went off for 25 points in the fourth quarter and won on Caleb Williams’ TD dime to DJ Moore. Micah Parsons, nearly a year removed from his ACL surgery, will try to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Buffalo at Denver
2:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 25, Netflix

You know who doesn’t love the NFL’s Christmas Day schedule? The NBA. This rematch of last year’s instant-classic AFC wild-card matchup is the stuffing between Bears-Packers and Rams-Seahawks. It should be pivotal for playoff position in the race for the AFC’s top seed.

Los Angeles Rams at Seattle
6:15 p.m., Friday, Dec. 25, KDVR-31

All football fans want for Christmas is another NFC West title fight after three epic clashes last season. That included Week 16’s overtime classic in which the Seahawks scored their third 2-point conversion of the game to secure the win. Playoff seeding and home-field advantage should be on the line again when the odds-on Super Bowl favorites head to Lumen Field to tussle with the defending champs.

Week 17

Denver at New England
TBD Jan. 3 or 4, TBD

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda. The Broncos are motivated by the Super Bowl opportunity that disappeared in a whiteout during last year’s AFC Championship. What if Bo Nix hadn’t broken his ankle? What if Sean Payton kicked the field goal on fourth-and-1 from the 14? No doubt Nix will be up for this one against Drake Maye, who went nine picks ahead of him in the 2024 draft.

Baltimore at Cincinnati
6:15 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 31, Prime Video

Skip the pricey prix-fixe on New Year’s Eve and stay in for this one, which could decide the AFC North title. This division rivalry only got juicier after Trey Hendrickson switched sides on a four-year, $112 million deal after the Ravens nixed the Maxx Crosby blockbuster. Hendrickson returning to the Jungle for the first time as a Raven should bring out the boo birds from Who Dey Nation. Crank the Guns N’ Roses.

Philadelphia Eagles

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 18-1; Over-under win total: 10.5

Strengths: Quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley will always be dangerous, especially operating behind an impenetrable offensive line that features Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata at the tackle spots. New offensive coordinator Sean Mannion is bringing fresh ideas to a Philadelphia roster that remains pretty loaded. Even after their Super Bowl title defense ended disappointingly without a playoff win last year, the Eagles have the firepower to maintain their monopoly on this division.

Weaknesses: Safety is easily the weakest position group following the loss of Reed Blankenship to Houston in free agency. Philadelphia’s by-committee approach might include nickel Cooper DeJean getting more safety reps. Linebacker Nakobe Dean and receiver AJ Brown were also key departures this offseason, though trading Brown to New England could turn out to be addition by subtraction after his social media antics developed into a major distraction last year.

Dallas Cowboys

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 25-1; Over-under win total: 9.5

Strengths: George Pickens proved to be one of the best acquisitions of the 2025 offseason. He amassed 1,429 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in a breakout year, pairing with CeeDee Lamb to provide Dak Prescott with one of the most impressive receiver corps in the league. This could be Pickens’ last season in Dallas with a potentially lucrative payday waiting for him next year. In the meantime, the Cowboys have a golden opportunity to lead the NFL in passing yards twice in a row.

Weaknesses: One of the league’s worst defenses is desperate for a philosophical overhaul. Can new DC Christian Parker deliver? The secondary was particularly pitiful last season, rarely generating interceptions and consistently making opposing quarterbacks look good. Returning cornerback DaRon Bland and rookie safety Caleb Downs — Dallas traded up to draft him with the 11th pick — are the best hopes to facilitate a turnaround.

Washington Commanders

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 66-1; Over-under win total: 7.5

Strengths: Quarterback, as long as you choose to believe the real Jayden Daniels was the one who appeared on MVP ballots and led an NFC title game run during his historic rookie season, and not the one whose completion rate dropped 9% during an injury-plagued sophomore year in which he missed 10 games.

Weaknesses: The Commanders signed 11 defensive players in free agency, so that unit will look completely different after an atrocious 2025. Offensively, they need the 30-year-old Terry McLaurin to stay healthy, or they’ll be thin on quality pass-catching options for Daniels to target. McLaurin also missed seven games last season.

New York Giants

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 66-1; Over-under win total: 7.5

Strengths: John Harbaugh was the flashiest hire of the coaching carousel this offseason. Can he spark an immediate turnaround in his first year away from Baltimore since 2007? At the very least, he has one of the best edge rusher rooms in the league at his disposal, equipped with edge rushers Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns (the NFC leader in sacks last year).

Weaknesses: Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo turned heads last year, but can the young QB-RB tandem elevate to a playoff level under a new coaching regime? Star receiver Malik Nabers also remains an unknown variable coming off a torn ACL. And as good as those edge rushers are, New York’s interior defensive line is nowhere near as complete.

In Week 16, Jacksonville torched Denver for 34 points at Empower Field and put the Broncos on notice that they would not waltz through the rest of their regular season, let alone the postseason.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence engineered a quartet of red zone touchdown conversions against the NFL’s best group.

Early in the fourth quarter, though, Robinson, a rookie outside linebacker, made a stand.

On first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, Robinson ripped unblocked off Lawrence’s left side as the quarterback meshed with running back Travis Etienne. Earlier, Lawrence, on a similar call, had pulled the ball, got leverage on Robinson, and walked in for a 1-yard touchdown.

He tried again.

This time, Robinson crashed into the quarterback and dropped him for a 5-yard loss.

On second-and-goal, Robinson blew off the line of scrimmage, ricocheted off of Etienne, and into an inside spin move past tackle Cole Van Lanen. Hurried, Lawrence dumped the ball off for a 3-yard gain.

Then, on third-and-7, the Jags finally wised up. Lawrence motioned running back LeQuint Allen into the backfield and deployed him to chip Robinson, effectively double-teaming him. An incomplete pass meant Jacksonville’s lone red zone failure of the afternoon.

Robinson’s on-the-job training as a fourth-round rookie came in fits and spurts last fall. He dressed for only six regular-season games, but played regularly in rotation when he was in uniform. He made the most eye-popping play of his first professional season — a turbocharged sack of New England’s Drake Maye in the AFC Championship Game — only after he was a gameday inactive in the divisional round against Buffalo.

Over the course of 162 defensive snaps and about the same on special teams, though, Robinson put himself squarely on the Broncos’ radar as a Year 2 breakout candidate. He did so long before fellow outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper ran into legal trouble that has clouded at least his 2026 outlook and potentially his standing with the club altogether.

Before Cooper’s two arrests in the span of one June week, Robinson was part of an interesting, productive young group of edge rushers that give Denver options and enviable depth behind star rusher Nik Bonitto. Now Robinson and that group may well be counted on in a much more substantial way for weeks or longer this fall.

Que Robinson starting to tap into vast ‘physical gifts’

George Paton is not prone to hyperbole.

The Broncos general manager is a scout at his core, and he talks about players in that manner.

Just after Denver’s AFC title game loss, Paton was asked about the progress of the team’s rookie class — headlined by first-round pick Jahdae Barron, second-round running back RJ Harvey and also including third-round defensive lineman Sai’Vion Jones, whom the Broncos traded up to draft. Paton said it was Robinson, though, who “may have the most upside of anyone in our draft class, and you could see it the other day.”

The other day, in this case, was when Robinson started up the field against the Patriots, put his hands on tight end Hunter Henry to disrupt his route to the flat, then eliminated a 5-yard gap between himself and Maye in a blink for a 9-yard sack.

That����ap the kind of play that can launch a young player into an offseason and a second season brimming with confidence.

“It����ap huge. It����ap huge,” outside linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker told The Post earlier this month. “Take the teaching. We talk about the upfield shoulder of the tight end to help you redirect to the quarterback. That kind of thing, when those little things start happening and then you get the results, just the confidence you feel. …

“That����ap just what helps you begin to play confident and grow.”

Robinson, listed at 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds, has long arms and a powerful frame. The Broncos loved his physical traits when they drafted him No. 134 overall last spring, but they didn’t know exactly how fast they’d start to see returns. After all, the former five-star high school recruit played just 370 defensive snaps in his four-year career at Alabama. That was hardly his fault. Robinson found himself behind the likes of future first-rounders Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner.

“Throughout the whole draft process, I liked what I saw,” Shewmaker said. “There were physical traits that I really liked. When he got here, same thing. He kept showing it. His thing is, just making him play with confidence. Giving him the confidence that, ‘you go out there and you play fast. Everything else is on me.’

“When he lets it loose, you see the physical gifts he has.”

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph saw them when Robinson was on the field, but even more acutely when he did his annual postseason film review.

When Robinson’s name came up earlier this month, a smile creased the veteran coordinator’s face.

The Vance Jospeh smile when Que Robinson’s name comes up.

Said the second-year OLB looks like a player who “can be a future starter for us.”

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

“When Que played, he played really well,” Joseph said. “It looked like a guy who can be a future starter for us.”

Joseph uttered those words after Cooper’s first arrest but hours before his second.

The future typically arrives faster than expected in the NFL. For Robinson, there’s at least a chance it����ap arriving this summer.

Healthy Jonah Ellis, steady Dondrea Tillman and a wildcard

One of Shewmaker’s favorite sequences of the season arrived early.

When Marvin Mims Jr. muffed a Week 1 punt early in the fourth quarter, Tennessee and rookie quarterback Cam Ward were set up at the Broncos’ 22-yard line and trailing 13-12 with 11:43 to go.

That����ap not exactly game on the line, but it was a huge moment in a game teetering toward trouble for the heavily favored Broncos.

The defense trotted onto the field with Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman at outside linebacker instead of Bonitto and Cooper.

After a 2-yard Tony Pollard run, Elliss sacked Ward for a 16-yard loss. Then on third-and-24, Tillman won clean off the edge and forced Ward to spin away and into Zach Allen’s arms for another 11-yard backtrack.

From sure to take the lead to out of field goal range, largely at the hands of a pair of reserve edge rushers.

“That����ap what it is,” Shewmaker said. “There’s no one, two, three, four. There are the guys that are up for each game and let����ap go. … I’m not worried about, ‘Oh, I have to have one of those (starters) on the field.’ I’ve got full confidence in everybody else, so we’re going to try to keep everybody as fresh as we can.

“I don’t like playing more than three to four plays in a row and then we’re going to get the next guys in. And we’re just going to keep on that.”

Elliss and Tillman have been the primary reasons the Broncos have been able to play that way the past two seasons. Tillman, a summer signing out of the UFL in 2024, has nine sacks the past two seasons and has played in 25 straight games plus three playoff contests since November 2024.

Elliss burst out of the gate as a rookie with five sacks in 2024, but dealt with shoulder and hamstring issues last fall and never looked like he was really in top form.

Broncos staff praise Elliss’ versatility and the group pondered moving him inside this year, but “at the end of the day he’s a really good rusher,” Shewmaker said simply.

“Last year he got dinged up a little bit and it was hard to get into a rhythm,” he added. “But he’s a great player for us on the edge and then we’ll just try to find more ways to get him on the field.”

Drew Sanders has been more than dinged up and represents the wild card in the group this summer. The 2023 third-round pick didn’t play a snap last year after injuring his foot in training camp and missed 13 in 2024 due to an Achilles tear. That means Sanders has played in just four games the past two seasons after appearing in all 17 as a rookie in 2023.

Can he stay healthy? Can he unlock the potential that����ap so far sat idly in an athletic, explosive player?

For now, the Broncos have smaller goals for him.

“He can get the alignment, the assignment, all of that,” head coach Sean Payton said earlier this month. “There’s a young player that, knock on wood, we feel like is really talented. …

“He’s coming into this portion of training camp healthy, so I’m encouraged with that.”

The Jonathon Cooper question will need an answer eventually

The next date on Cooper’s court calendar is a hearing on July 24, four days before Broncos veterans report for training camp.

Cooper’s criminal cases have been consolidated into one that includes four charges, led by one for felony assault. They stem from two incidents involving his girlfriend, the first an argument that turned physical, including Cooper acknowledging to a police officer that he picked his girlfriend up by the neck, according to an updated arrest affidavit. Cooper participated in Broncos OTAs after the initial arrest but then was arrested again a week later, hours after Denver’s practice ended, after his girlfriend said he showed up at her apartment and pounded on the door for 5-10 minutes and also sent her 20 unreturned messages. He has not been with the team since and was an excused absence from the club’s mandatory minicamp on June 16 and 17.

If Cooper’s case goes to trial, it will almost certainly be well into training camp or even the regular season. That means the NFL and the Broncos could have to decide what, if any, punishment they will levy before the criminal proceedings play out.

The league’s personal conduct policy does not require a player to be convicted in criminal court to be subject to discipline and lays out a baseline six-game suspension for players found to have engaged in domestic violence, “with possible upward or downward adjustments based on any aggravating or mitigating factors.”

There is also the eventual question of whether the Broncos will consider cutting ties with Cooper altogether. He is the first player to be arrested since Payton arrived and since the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group purchased the team in August 2022.

After Cooper’s initial arrest, Payton said that the team had “a long visit” with him. After the second, the veteran coach spoke about the organization’s high standards and said, “We’ll consider all of that as we continue to gather the information.”

An eventual decision will undoubtedly be seen as a marker for how Payton and how the ownership group will handle such cases going forward.

Money is unlikely to be a driving factor, but it will become part of the equation if Denver releases Cooper.

The 28-year-old signed a four-year, $54 million extension in 2024 and pocketed $15 million of that money during the first two seasons. He’s due $12 million more this year.

Denver, though, could go after a substantial portion of that money if it wants to, following a potential release.

Only $1.7 million of Cooper’s 2026 pay is guaranteed. On top of that,  more than $20 million of Cooper’s deal has been paid or allocated as signing bonus. Any of that bonus money allocated for 2026 or beyond — a total of $17.1 million — is eligible for forfeiture, multiple player agents told The Post. If the Broncos tried to claw back all or some of that money, a grievance would likely follow. If the club succeeded, it would gain salary cap credit for the money forfeited.

All of that is of downballot concern, but it could enter the picture at some point.

In the meantime, the Broncos’ young pass-rushers step to the fore. Robinson would have been a player to watch even without Cooper’s troubles. Now, he’s even more so.

“The strength and size he has, there’s not going to be many tight ends that can block him,” Shewmaker said. “Not many tackles that can block him one-on-one, either.”

Denver has interviewed Commanders offensive passing-game coordinator Brian Johnson for their open OC job, a source confirmed to The Denver Post Friday. With the Broncos’ previous interview of Bills quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry, Denver can now move forward with hiring any candidate under the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which mandates teams must interview at least two minority coaching candidates for coordinator roles.

Broncos passing-game coordinator Davis Webb still stands as the clear favorite to take over in Denver’s top offensive role. Johnson, though, presents an interesting option, after working closely with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels in his Offensive Rookie of the Year season in 2024.

Previously, Johnson worked as the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach in 2021 and 2022, where he helped develop Super Bowl winner Jalen Hurts. Johnson also worked with Dak Prescott during his collegiate career at Mississippi State, where he was the Bulldogs’ QBs coach from 2014 to 2016.

The Broncos’ offensive staff has undergone rapid change across the past week, as head coach Sean Payton fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and receivers coach Keary Colbert Tuesday. Senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael Jr. — a Payton loyalist dating back to New Orleans — is also leaving Denver to take the Bills’ offensive-coordinator job.

Johnson’s interview is notable, too, in that he’s had no shared-staff overlap with Payton at any previous stop. And Denver now has two potential candidates for a role as a quarterbacks coach, if they do indeed promote Webb to offensive coordinator.

You’re probably the happiest kid in the world right now, Blake recalled telling Barron.

The three have kept a group chat for the majority of Barron’s first year in Denver and Mukuba’s first year in Philadelphia, through the natural ebbs and flows of playing defensive back as an NFL rookie. The Broncos’ cornerback has texted his friends, saying nobody else understands how much film he’s been watching. In Week 8 against the Cowboys — following unfamiliar weeks of limited snap shares and stints on the bench — it all paid off, when he came down with an interception off Dak Prescott.

“I think it was a weight,” Blake reflected, “lifted off his shoulder.”

Barron, a 2025 first-round selection, was shouldered with his own instant-impact expectations. He was “praying on his opportunity” to get his second pick, as Blake reflected in late October.

The chance arrived a month later. Two days before a matchup with the Commanders, as cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch told The Post, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph told Barron in practice he wanted a specific underneath route intercepted.

Two days later, in overtime against the Commanders, that route popped up. Barron read it as Washington wideout Deebo Samuel darted in on a short slant. Barron left his assignment on tight end Zach Ertz, broke on the ball, and dove.

It couldn’t have been a more perfect rep. Except Barron dropped the ball. The rookie put his hands on his helmet, rolled over, and smacked the grass three times with the full force of his right arm.

“He’s getting more in the mix,” Lynch said, a few days later. “He’s getting more in the spot. So those plays are going to come for him.”

That has been the story of Barron’s inaugural season in Denver: a rookie who’s gradually learned to put himself in better positions in Joseph’s defense but has only sparingly found himself in the position to do so.

Six months ago, in a locker room in Santa Clara, Calif., after the Broncos’ first preseason game of the season, Barron told The Post that “everything’s gonna click.” Now, as the Broncos gear up for a postseason run that could take them right back to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl, Barron’s role has mostly stayed static.

After playing heavier doses at the outside corner with Pat Surtain II out in November, Barron snapped right back to playing mostly in dime situations. He’s started the last couple of games of the season at nickel, but has subbed immediately after just one play for Ja’Quan McMillian.

Entering Week 18, Barron’s had the lowest average snap share per game (29%) of the 14 defensive players taken in the first round of April’s draft. On Wednesday, Barron was asked where he feels now compared to that August game in Santa Clara. He didn’t offer up much.

“I mean, shoot, we’re winning, so I’m happy,” Barron told The Post.

Is there a certain part of you, he was asked a minute later, that wishes you were on the field a little more? 

“I mean, it’s human nature,” Barron responded. “I mean, you would want more money, right? So, same answer. Yeah.”

Nobody, Blake emphasized back in October, has higher expectations for Barron than he has for himself. It burned in the ����������of his hand against that grass in Washington, a 23-year-old wise beyond his years and yet subject to that human nature.

But Joseph emphasized earlier this season that it’s a luxury to bring Barron along slowly, with McMillian entrenched at nickel and Kris Abrams-Draine proving to be a reliable depth option at outside corner. And cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch has seen a rookie who’s slowly learned to drop those first-round expectations, and just go “play football.”

“He’s not chasing those anymore,” Lynch told The Post in November. “He’s just out here playing his role, playing ball and helping us win the game.”

Blake, for one, hasn’t seen Barron go “into a hole,” as he put it. The hole, for the rookie, is film. Barron entered that game in Week 8 against the Cowboys with a heap of notes on Dallas star tight end Jake Ferguson, Blake said. As Ferguson cut up the seam against Barron at the end of the first half, Barron was already turning his head back to the ball just a split second after quarterback Dak Prescott reared back. That first interception, above all else, was about anticipation.

“He studied that,” Blake said, “to a T.”

After a couple of early-season communication bumps in match coverage, Barron’s visibly improved at reading the middle of the field and passing off assignments. He has also received verbal and emotional support from Abrams-Draine, who’s only one year Barron’s senior and still calls the rookie “little brother.” Barron doesn’t much like that, Abrams-Draine said with a smile.

“It’s so hard in this defense, because you’re basically the adjustment for everybody,” Abrams-Draine said, referring to Barron learning the nickel defense. “So you just gotta learn — when do you go and when do you not do stuff? It’s just hard. And it takes time.”

It has taken 17 full weeks. It will take longer. But Joseph is starting to deploy Barron as the nickel in larger personnel groupings, helping shadow tight ends and make plays against the run. The rookie played 49% of Denver’s snaps against Kansas City on Christmas, even with a full complement of defensive backs.

He’ll play an essential role in this Broncos late-season push. Even if it wasn’t the role he might’ve hoped for that night in August in Santa Clara.

“I mean, the whole point of life is about growth,” Barron said. “So, just growing every day. It����ap been good. It����ap been interesting.”

Old man Rivers. Philip Rivers returning to Indianapolis and perhaps even starting this weekend at Seattle is one of the most compelling stories in the NFL this year. Can the 44-year-old really do it? Can he come off the bench cold after five years and not play disastrous football? Conventional wisdom suggests no, but what a story if he can. Everybody will be watching.

Two-way go. The Broncos should very clearly be rooting for Kansas City to get off the skid and beat the Chargers this weekend. Still, the AFC West matchup essentially amounts to a win-win for Denver. If the Chargers win, Kansas City is fully out of the playoff picture. So while a Chargers loss is by far the better outcome for Denver’s division title hopes, a Chiefs loss isn’t terrible, either. If Jim Harbaugh’s team wins and the Broncos lose to Green Bay, the race in the West is very much on.

Dudes in a dud. Not often you get a matchup of future Hall of Fame-type quarterbacks in December that has as little juice as Baltimore and Cincinnati this weekend. This could have been a top-of-the-division tilt, but instead it’s a 6-7 vs. 4-9 game. The Ravens most certainly aren’t out of the picture in the AFC North, but Lamar Jackson and the offense have been going nowhere recently. Meanwhile, the Bengals are out of the playoff race and Joe Burrow is questioning whether playing football is still fun for him. This should almost always be a dynamite late-season matchup. Not this time.

Around the NFC

Crunch time for Lions. Detroit has a massive challenge and a near must-win at the NFC-leading Los Angeles Rams. The Lions are currently sitting in third in the NFC North with 40% playoff odds, . If they manage to beat L.A., those odds jump to 60% before any other Week 15 action. If they lose, the odds plummet to 30%. So, a 30-point swing one way or the other.

Couple Bucs short. There are bad losses and then there’s Tampa Bay blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead at home against Atlanta. The Falcons had already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but stormed back to beat Baker Mayfield’s Bucs. Tampa’s lost five of six, including New Orleans and Atlanta back-to-back. Carolina can take control of the NFC South on Sunday. Todd Bowles might be looking around and asking, “Is it just me or is this seat a little warm?”

Dak attack. Dallas at 6-6-1 needs to win out to have a realistic chance at the playoffs. Their final four isn’t impossible. They start this weekend with Minnesota before a tough one at home against the Chargers. Then they finish with roadies at Washington and the New York Giants. That����ap a doable slate for the NFL’s leading passer, Dak Prescott, and his terrific receiver duo of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.

Game of the Week

Buffalo at New England

If anybody is going to stop New England’s mega-heater, the Bills are probably the best bet. The Patriots already have a game in hand against Buffalo — the second of their current 10-game winning streak was a 23-20 victory in Western New York — and now they get the defending division champs at home with a chance to put the division on ice.

Mike Vrabel has engineered one of the great single-season turnarounds in league history in his debut season as New England’s coach and this will be the club’s biggest test to date. The final three isn’t a total cake walk — at Baltimore, at the New York Jets and home against streaking Miami — but this feels like the biggest hill left on the route to the AFC’s No. 1 seed. Well, that and the fact that Denver’s also won 10 straight. The Bills are 1.5-point road favorites. This should be a terrific one.

Bills 24, Patriots 23

Lock of the Week

Las Vegas at Philadelphia

Even after a stumble last week, the Eagles are 1.5 games clear in the NFC East and they’re the only team in the division with a positive points differential. Dallas could mount a run at them, but Philly should be in pretty good shape. All the same, they’ve chewed through a decent amount of their margin for error and still have a road game at Buffalo on the docket. Nick Sirianni’s team can’t afford a dumb loss. This would be exactly that. The Raiders are in dire straits across the board and are still in the mix for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. You shouldn’t be able to set this line high enough. The sports books have it pegged at 11.5 points. Maybe Raiders coach Pete Carroll can call for a meaningless field goal that covers the spread for the second straight week.

Eagles 27, Raiders 13

Upset of the Week

Miami at Pittsburgh

Every time the Steelers do something notable, they seem to take a step back. They did something notable last week, knocking off Baltimore in a thriller and taking sole possession of first place in the AFC North in the process. They’ve still got another matchup with the Ravens in Week 18 at home, but in the meantime, they’ve got a chance to potentially build a bit of a lead.

Miami, though, is playing well itself and has won four straight games. That����ap all probably for naught — even if they win their last four games, the postseason odds don’t favor Mike McDaniel’s team — but it makes life difficult for Pittsburgh. Can Aaron Rodgers conjure more high-level December play as a three-point home favorite? Maybe, but not this week.

Dolphins 20, Steelers 19

1. The Chiefs are dead. DEAD!: Patrick Mahomes will be seeing Ja’Quan McMillian in his sleep. If he can sleep at all. Because the Broncos just stuck a dagger in the back of the AFC’s longest active dynasty. The Broncos’ heart-stopping win over the Chiefs will likely put an end to a run of nine straight division titles for Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. The Broncos (9-2) hold a three-and-a-half game lead atop the division over Kansas City (5-5) with seven to play. So many heroes. So much insanity. Courtland Sutton’s first down by a centimeter on that final drive. Bo Nix to Troy Franklin to basically ice the game. But the biggest star on a day full of them might be McMillian, who finished with two sacks, a game-changing interception and six tackles.

2. Sean Payton gets trucked: Sean Payton was out of line by being on the line. This is going to shock you, but Payton had run afoul of NFL rules when a referee trucked him while chasing McMillian’s 63-yard interception return five minutes into the third quarter. Payton and the official, who didn’t appear to see each other, both went down in a heap, after which flags flew around the pair of prone bodies. Payton got a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, as per NFL.com, “On page A77, the (league) policy states: While play is in progress, there will be no coaches or players within the white border, thus avoiding possible interference with officiating of the game.” So Payton got what was coming to him. In more ways than one.

Sean Payton was hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty for this collision

— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS)

3. Barron on Kelce: While sticking first-round draft pick and slot cornerback Jahdae Barron against a front-line tight end worked wonders against the Cowboys, going back to the well against the Chiefs with Barron proved more of a mixed bag. Dallas tight end Jake Ferguson proved notable in his absence of touches, robbing Dak Prescott of one of his favorite targets. Through three quarters, Travis Kelce had racked up six catches for 56 yards. Barron even talked trash to Mr. Taylor Swift after an incompletion with seven seconds left in the first half.  The future Hall of Famer had the last laugh, though, as a rare missed tackle by safety Talanoa Hufanga with 9:57 left in the game helped Kelce slither his way for a 21-yard score and a 19-16 KC lead.

4. Who needs Taylor when you’ve got Costner?: No Taylor Swift sighting at Empower Field in the first half on Sunday, but who needs the life of a showgirl when you’ve got John Dutton III? While eagle eyes at Mile High were scanning for a peek to see if Kelce’s fiancée had made the trip to the Front Range, another pop culture icon was spotted down on the field before the game. Kevin Costner, the 70-year-old actor/director/producer/musician and star of “Field of Dreams” and “Yellowstone,” was seen kibitzing with ����apEO Rob Walton. Costner’s resume over the decades includes a starring role in the 2014 film “Draft Day,” in which Broncos icons John Elway and Peyton Manning also appear.

And run hard.

With the Raiders near midfield on a crucial third down on Thursday night, Tillman — an increasingly important component of Vance Joseph’s Broncos defense — started to creep in on quarterback Geno Smith from the outside. Running back Ashton Jeanty flared out from the backfield, though, and Tillman backpedaled to catch up. Smith’s delivery to the rookie Jeanty popped right off his hands, did an end-over-end parabola and fell directly into Tillman’s waiting arms.

The 6-foot-4, 247-pound outside linebacker then cradled the rock in his right arm, turned upfield like a receiver, and flashed right past a would-be Raiders tackler on a 23-yard return.

“Look at him gallop!” .

The interception leader on a Broncos defense approaching historically great status? Tillman, a player who didn’t receive a single Division I offer out of high school, played Division II ball at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and was discovered by scout Ish Seisay in the UFL.

Twice in the past three weeks, Tillman has electrified ����apountry with athleticism that flipped the field. He put Javonte Williams in the dirt and sped for 36 yards on a pick of Dak Prescott in Week 8 against the Cowboys.

Social media fired off a slew of jokes . Really, this is only a sliver of a joke. Because Tillman was quick enough to play tight end in high school.

“He would’ve been an undersized tight end,” Tillman’s high school coach Jason Allen told The Denver Post on Friday. “Could he have done it? Oh, yeah.

“I mean, when we would do blocking drills, he would run people off the football.”

In an alternate universe, there’s a world in which Virginia’s Potomac Falls High ran a one-tight-end system in the mid-2010s under Allen. In an alternate universe, Tillman could’ve switched over from the defensive line and taken a different collegiate path. But Potomac Falls already had a good tight end, Allen said, and needed more help on the defensive front. So Tillman stuck there.

This didn’t stop Allen from tossing Tillman in at tight end in short-yardage or red-zone situations, though. And if Tillman had the ball in his hands in high school, there were two certainties: He’d either “run you over, or run by you,” Allen said.

“He’s kind of sneaky fast and quick,” Allen said. “You don’t think so. But boy, he’s on you so quick – you thought it would’ve been different. And then he could put a move on you, and you’re like, ‘How does this guy move his hips so well, and has such quick feet?’”

This current reality is working out just fine for the Broncos. After a first year in Denver thriving as a pass-rusher in limited time (five sacks in 12 games), Tillman is playing a key role in Joseph’s edge rotation. Despite a profile as a power-rusher — a “finisher,” as Joseph called him in training camp — Tillman has spent considerably more time against the run and in coverage than he did as a rookie.

It’s paying off. The cornerback group is “kinda upset” with Tillman, he joked, because the outside linebacker is outpacing all of them in takeaways.

“That came out of nowhere,” Tillman said Thursday.

Tillman came out of nowhere to star at IUP and came out of nowhere to win a few rings in the UFL for the Birmingham Stallions. He has also come out of nowhere in Denver. His role should continue to grow after fellow reserve OLB Jonah Elliss suffered a hamstring injury against the Raiders on Thursday.

“The story is not done unless you want it to be done,” Allen said. “And I think that����ap the beauty of him.”

The fourth year of Cooper’s Broncos career ended in splendor last season. He set a career high with 10.5 sacks and signed a four-year extension worth $60 million, changing his and his family’s lives forever. Bruce Ward, Cooper’s old high school coach back at Gahanna-Lincoln High in Ohio and still a friend, gave him a call to offer his congratulations. Man, that’s a great season.

Cooper didn’t bite. I gotta be better, he told Ward. I want the sack lead next year.

“Okay, Coop, I hear you,” Ward remembered telling him, “but it’s February, man.”

Nah, Coach, Cooper insisted. I gotta be better.

“Like, just relax and enjoy the offseason, you had a great season,” Ward said months later, reflecting. “‘Cause, you’ve outlived the expectation.”

In late October, the Broncos outside linebacker sat in his locker in Denver, far beyond the expectation. Far to a mother, Jessica, who hadn’t finished high school. Far beyond the man who had two heart surgeries in high school, fell to the seventh round of the NFL draft five years ago, and had three more heart surgeries before he ever arrived in Denver. That past stays with him forever, Cooper reflected. It drives him.

It drove him so far that he had to leave that motivation behind and find a new one. He is no longer an underdog story. The 27-year-old Cooper is knocking on the door of the NFL’s best, with six sacks through eight games in 2025. He wants to be the best in the league.

A total of 238 players were drafted before Cooper in 2021. He now has more sacks through five years than all but one of them (Micah Parsons). Every camp, Broncos inside linebacker Justin Strnad said, brings a “new version of Coop.” This 2025 one is the best yet: The 257-pound Cooper has unlocked a potent speed-rush, with a faster average get-off time (0.74 seconds) than any of the NFL’s top 35 leaders in quarterback pressures, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

For years, his strength coach Jackson Hayes said, Cooper was focused on measurables. I gotta get bigger. I gotta get faster. I gotta get stronger. Eventually, there was little left to unlock in his 6-foot-4 frame. But Cooper has ascended to the NFL’s elite because of his continued search for every minuscule mechanism of improvement — one that brought him this summer to a gym in Plain City, Ohio, and into the hands of a 24-year-old mental performance specialist.

“I see my mom work,” Cooper told The Denver Post on Thursday. “My mom worked hard, like, really hard. Single mom. Really smart, independent woman who just worked her ass off. Like, truly, truly did. And she instilled that in me.

“So, I’m not going to stop working,” he smiled. “Until I die.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

Every year, Ward tells Cooper’s story to his team at Gahanna-Lincoln. Specifically, one game in Cooper’s junior year, when he briefly lost his mouthguard.

An official told Cooper he had to sit until he had a mouthpiece. He looked around, snatched a dangling mouthpiece from the facemask of the first teammate he saw, and re-entered the game.

“Coop’s Coop,” Strnad said. “That’s the only way I could put it. He’s a different guy, you know what I mean? He thinks differently. Acts differently.”

A couple of weeks before Cooper was set to rejoin the Broncos for camp, he was working with Hayes in July at his gym, the Relentless Collective, back in central Ohio. Across the way, a young trainer named Logan Scheider was working with a couple of high school baseball players, all sporting a wristband. The strap flashed white, and Scheider’s trainees opened their hands as quickly as possible. It flashed orange, and they kept their fingers tucked into a fist.

Eventually, Cooper wandered over, interested.

Scheider had just received a Master’s degree in sports and performance psychology at Pennsylvania Western University and moved up to Columbus, Ohio, to start his own business. For the most part, he began working with baseball players. Scheider’s . But Cooper struck up a conversation with him, and Scheider suggested that the concept of training reaction time could be important to his quickness off the snap.

That day, Cooper began telling Scheider about the purpose of his offseason. He just got paid. His expressed goal, Scheider recalled, was to prove he deserved that money.

“He thought he could help me out,” Cooper recalled. “And he really did.”

The outside linebacker slapped on one of the wristbands. they track the brainwaves of a user through light sensors, Scheider said. He had Cooper do an initial test.

His overall reaction time was roughly .25 seconds behind Scheider’s high school baseball players.

“Logan was explaining, like, ‘Man, the success he’s had in the NFL — I’m shocked that his reaction time is that slow,'” recalled Ward, who visited Cooper one day at Relentless Collective. “And that����ap all you need to say to Cooper. It����ap on, from then on out.”

For the next week or so, Cooper wore a wristband and took its cognitive test at several points throughout his workout. Hayes, meanwhile, built specific reaction-time challenges into every phase of training. Sprints came on cue of a hand-clap. Bench-presses came on cue of a go–call. They ran change-of-direction drills where Cooper stood in the middle of a collection of multicolored cones, Hayes called “red,” and Cooper had to dart to the red cone.

Eventually, they ran mock get-offs. And both his wristband cognitive-reaction time and his average get-off time dropped by about .15 seconds. By the end of his time in Ohio, before leaving for Denver, Cooper was trash-talking Scheider’s baseball group.

It was hilarious, Scheider chuckled. These were 15-year-old kids.

“I started beating them, and they was getting upset,” Cooper said. “‘Cause, like, that����ap they whole thing. That����ap they whole thing. So, like, the fact that I was beating some baseball players at it made me feel like I’m actually reacting fast, like I’m supposed to.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

Every year, Nate O’Neal tells Cooper’s story to his defensive-line group in pre-draft training at XPE Sports in Florida. Specifically, how Cooper earned himself a $60 million deal because a seventh-round pick simply never stopped developing.

Back when Cooper was coming out of Ohio State, when all pass-rush expert O’Neal knew of him was his tape, he saw a good player. He saw a possible NFL starter. He did not see a 10-plus-sack-a-year guy, as O’Neal put it. Cooper rushed with wasted movement and played out of his natural position as a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end at Ohio State. He had just 10 sacks across five college seasons.

Four years later, though, O’Neal’s appraisal of Cooper had changed.

“I’ve had dudes go in the first (round) that can’t even hope to have his amount of success,” said O’Neal, a trainer who works with over 100 NFL or pre-draft clients a year. “I just knew at the end of the day that Coop was going to be okay, because he was always going to want to get better. … A lot of these cats can’t say that, man.

“But Jonathon Cooper can.”

In London in mid-October, with the Jets facing a do-or-die fourth down on their last drive of the game, Cooper toed the line a few yards off the ball. Jets quarterback Justin Fields went into his cadence, picking up and dropping his back foot. As soon as Fields’ cleats touched back down to the turf, Cooper �����������off the line, his first step coming before the snap even hit Fields’ hands.

Rookie tight end Mason Taylor, trying to block, couldn’t even whip his head around fast enough before Cooper was already past him. Taylor grabbed at Cooper’s jersey like he was trying to catch a moving train, but Cooper took down Fields to seal a Broncos win.

Here's 21 stationary guys and Jonathon Cooper blowing off the ball on the game-sealing sack — the ninth of the day against the Jets.

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

Cooper’s get-off time has shortened in every single season of his NFL career. That rep in London doesn’t happen in 2021, his rookie year. Maybe not even in 2024.

“That����ap what we was working on,” Cooper said when asked about that Jets sack. “That was like, all credit to that system, and what we were doing.”

Reaction-time work, as Scheider explained, is much more prevalent in baseball, where modern hitters must train their brains to effectively pick up triple-digit mile-per-hour fastballs. The concept is no different for pass-rushers in the NFL.

“It also aids decision-making,” Scheider said. “So, if Coop sees a tackle set a certain way, or set an angle the wrong way, Coop’s able to react.”

Last Sunday, on one rep in a 44-24 drubbing of Dallas, Cooper burst from the outside against Cowboys right tackle Terence Steele. As Cooper approached, Steele’s right foot dropped behind him, anticipating a speed-rush to the outside. Without breaking stride or slowing, Cooper gave a �DzԱ�-�ٷɴ���step and swam his arms past Steele back to the inside, getting on top of quarterback Dak Prescott and forcing an incompletion.

Back in July, Scheider goaded on Cooper during workouts with comparisons to two of the pre-eminent pass-rushers in the NFL, Ward recalled. This is Micah Parsons time, Scheider said. This is Myles Garrett speed. 

Through eight weeks, Cooper now has a faster average get-off time than Parsons or Garrett.

“If Coop finds something that motivates him or pushes him,” Ward said, “he’s never going to stop.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

By the end of his time at Gahanna-Lincoln, Cooper’s letterman jacket was stitched across the back with nods to his time on the football team. And the basketball team.

It also read A capella.

“Like, no other kid in America is walking around with those three on the back of their jacket,” Ward chuckled.

Cooper was in the school choir since middle school, and was one of the group’s best bass singers, teacher Jeremy Lahman said. He prepared intensely for tryouts every year while also developing as a five-star football recruit. If anyone ever joked about it, Ward said, Cooper told them he was going to be great at singing.

“I love music,” Cooper said. “So, yeah, it just kinda had me. So I mean, I enjoyed that.

“And plus, the choir teacher was a hardass. So that’s what made it better.”

Cooper has long found kinship with those who push him as hard as he pushes himself. O’Neal is an aggressive coach and self-described “not very likable guy.” Cooper has become his favorite player he’s ever had in draft prep. In Denver, rookie Sai’vion Jones — two lockers down from Cooper — has watched the veteran bicker constantly with his fellow outside linebackers for months.

“When you see him all turnt up,” Jones grinned, “you don’t have no choice but to be turnt up with him.”

Cooper told The Post he came into the year wanting a Pro Bowl, an All-Pro nod and 10-plus sacks. Maybe 15-plus. In training camp, Jones watched Cooper lose a rep, pull the offensive lineman aside to show him what he did, and then go pull rookie Que Robinson to stand in as a mock offensive lineman off to the side so he could drill it again. Cooper’s coaches and trainers acknowledge his physical gifts are limited: Not super long, not super tall, not super heavy, as Hayes said. And yet he is dominating.

“It����ap the only reason why I’m here, because of my mindset,” Cooper said. “So I don’t feel like I should change. I don’t want to change when it comes to that. And … there’s always something to get better at.

“The moment you start feeling it, like, ‘Oh, I’m good, I’m fine,’ complacency starts to kick in,” Cooper continued. “It����ap just human nature. So, if you keep the mindset of, ‘I have to get better,’ then you don’t even allow complacency to ever slip into your mind.”

Legendary Ohio State defensive-line coach Larry Johnson still tells Cooper, often: He has two hearts beating in him.

“Because he only knows one way to go,” Johnson said. “And that����ap full speed ahead.”

�³���:��11 a.m. Sunday

�³�����:��NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas

�ճ�/�����徱��:��FOX/850 AM, 94.1 FM

Broncos-Texans series: There isn’t a long history for this matchup. The Broncos and Texans have played just 10 times, with Denver leading the series 6-4. They have faced off in the Payton Era, though, giving some sense of familiarity. The Texans put away the Broncos 22-17 in December 2023, when former QB Russell Wilson threw three picks and Texans WR1 Nico Collins went off for 191 yards and a score.

In the spotlight: Offensive line faces serious challenge vs. Texans’ edge rushers

Down in Dove Valley, newly minted Broncos left guard Alex Palczewski’s locker sits directly across from Garett Bolles. And for a 26-year-old who profiles as a tackle and says his last time playing on the left side of the O-line was the “Obama administration,” there may not be a better mentor in the NFL than the 33-year-old Bolles.

“It’s just how much of a professional he is — like, he just takes care of himself in all facets, physically, mentally,” Palczewski said of Bolles. “Puts himself in the best positions to succeed.”

Bolles has succeeded in one facet better than any other tackle in the NFL this year. He has stared down some edge warriors the past couple of weeks, including the Giants’ Brian Burns and Abdul Carter in Week 7, and not allowed a single pressure since Week 6. On the year, he’s allowed a quarterback pressure on just .09% of his total snaps. That’s best in the league among all tackles with 300-plus snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

“I always knew my better football was always ahead of me,” Bolles told The Post. “The older I get, I just get more comfortable, and more calm, and more composed. And I knew that was going to happen, because that’s just the type of player that I am.”

Bolles, the longest-tenured Bronco on this current roster, wants the NFL’s inaugural Protector of the Year award. And he’s been the best protector in the NFL through seven weeks. This weekend’s trip to Houston, though, brings a pass-blocking challenge like few others on the Broncos’ schedule.

There aren’t many edge duos in the league that can hold a candle to the Broncos’ speed-rush pairing of Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper. The Texans’ Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter, though, are on that level. Third-year rusher Anderson sits at fifth in the NFL in total pressures (36). Ten-year veteran Hunter hasn’t quite been playing at his normal five-time Pro Bowl level, but he still has four sacks through seven games.

“They’re extremely fast,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said of Houston’s defense. “And the edges, man, when you look at Danielle Hunter, and — both of these edge players, with wide techniques, are problems.”

That speed is the most pressing problem. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Bolles and right-tackle-mate Mike McGlinchey were both first-round picks due to their athleticism; they now are going head-to-head with the quickest group of pass-rushers in the league. The Texans rank just 21st in the NFL in total pressures (82), but first among all teams in average time to pressure (2.64 seconds).

Ultimately, this allows Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke to live in heavy doses of base personnel and four-man rushes without having to blitz much. Teams have attacked Houston quickly: The Texans surrender more yardage per game on throws under 2.5 seconds than over.

The Broncos blew the brakes off the Cowboys last week, and got quarterback Bo Nix in rhythm, because of an offensive line that often gave Nix a comical amount of time to throw. They’ll need a continued superhuman effort from Bolles this week, and the line around him, to give Nix time to go through progressions against a stingy Texans secondary.

“I say this respectfully, it’s not there’s a multitude of things,” Payton said of his impression of Houston’s defense. “But the things they do, they do exceptionally well.”

Who has the edge?

When Broncos run: J.K. Dobbins just keeps on chugging. He’s had one bad game out of eight this season, and just posted his single-season high with a 15-carry, 111-yard effort against Dallas. Ideally, the Broncos start to get rookie RJ Harvey more involved after a two-touchdown performance in just seven carries last week. This might be a Dobbins game, though, as the Texans’ run defense has surrendered the lowest yards per game on outside-tackle runs in the NFL. Edge: Even

When Broncos pass: Bo Nix got rolling last week, just in time for … one of the best secondaries in the NFL. This group is stingy. Cornerback Jalen Pitre has three interceptions. Second-year safety Calen Bullock has allowed just seven catches on 18 targets in coverage. Even linebacker Henry To’oTo’o has a 63.4 quarterback rating against. The Texans have allowed the fewest passing touchdowns in the NFL. The way to beat Houston is to try and hit the intermediate part of the field, where they’re 25th in average yards per game. Edge: Texans

When Texans run: There’s a kinda similar dynamic here in Houston and Denver’s backfields: a go-to-guy with an injury history (Nick Chubb) and a rookie change-of-pace back (Woody Marks). Chubb has had an up-and-down season, though, averaging 4.0 yards a carry. His longest gain of the year is 27 yards. Marks is starting to assert himself, running for 62 yards on just 11 carries in last week’s win over San Francisco. All in all, it’s a decent but not-imposing rushing attack, especially against a Broncos defense that’s surrendering the fifth-lowest average yards per carry in the league. Edge: Broncos

When Texans pass: For all the talk about C.J. Stroud’s fall-off since his offensive rookie of the year campaign in 2023, he’s putting up the highest completion percentage (67%) of his career, and he just went 30 of 38 for 316 yards against the 49ers. The Texans’ issue is a lack of explosiveness, and Stroud has been iffy in the intermediate part of the field. Nico Collins’ health is the key here, as he’s been in concussion protocol and will likely match up with Denver’s Riley Moss with Pat Surtain II hurt. Edge: Even

Special teams: Texans rookie Jaylin Noel brings juice in the return game, with similar average yards-per-punt and yards-per-kick returns to the Broncos’ All-Pro Marvin Mims Jr. Broncos punter Jeremy Crawshaw far outranks the Texans’ Tommy Townsend in average punts downed inside the 20-yard-line, though. Denver also has a special-teams ace in safety Devon Key, who is , according to TeamRankings.com. Edge: Broncos

��Dz����󾱲Բ�:��The Texans have built one of the NFL’s stingiest units under defensive-minded head coach DeMeco Ryans and coordinator Matt Burke. Their offense, though, has consistently underperformed in a 3-4 start. Broncos head coach Sean Payton just authored his best end-to-end play-calling performance of the year, and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph showed he could survive without Surtain against one of the NFL’s best offenses in Dallas last week. Slight edge: Broncos

Tale of the tape

By the numbers

20.2%:��Texans OLB Will Anderson Jr.’s pressure rate, second in the NFL to the Broncos’ Nik Bonitto among players with 25-plus pressures.

22.2%:��C.J. Stroud’s completion percentage on intermediate or deep throws down the right side of the field, according to PFF.

1:��Rushing touchdowns the Texans have in the red zone this year, through seven games.

68%:��Houston’s run-block win rate, as measured by ESPN — last in the NFL.

139.4:��Bo Nix’s QB rating against the blitz in his last two games.

286:��Dobbins’ rushing yards when facing a light box (seven or fewer defenders), fourth in the NFL.

X-factors

Broncos: S Talanoa Hufanga. Broncos cornerback Riley Moss told The Post that Denver played more two-high safety looks in Pat Surtain II’s second-half absence, and coordinator Vance Joseph will likely rely heavily upon Hufanga and safety partner Brandon Jones to give some help to whoever starts on Nico Collins (could be Moss, could be Kris Abrams-Draine). This week is a good test of Hufanga’s evolution in coverage.

�ձ�油�Բ�:��WR Jaylin Noel. The rookie might be establishing himself as Houston’s No. 2 WR after racking up a combined nine catches for 140 yards the past couple of weeks. The Texans need another wideout to step up against a Broncos defense that’ll likely scheme heavily against Collins in Surtain’s absence.

Post predictions

Parker Gabriel, Broncos writer: Broncos 16, Texans 13

One team in Texas has the best offense in football and the worst defense. The Broncos put 44 points on that team last week. The other team in Texas has perhaps the best defense in the NFL, but hasn’t been able to protect its quarterback. That’s this weekend’s Broncos opponent, Houston. Denver coach Sean Payton likes to say that sometimes games go the way you expect, and occasionally they don’t. A high-scoring affair here, though, would be a surprise. Both defenses are nasty. The pass-rushes are fierce. The secondaries are stout — although Denver will be without Pat Surtain II. Still, a slugfest is on tap. The Broncos have proven they can win ’em.

Luca Evans, Broncos writer: Broncos 17, Texans 14

Last week was the shootout. This week is the brawl. Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper vs. Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Who can terrorize the opposing quarterback more? What secondary can take away the skies better? This shapes up as a defensive battle through and through, even after Bo Nix and company got rolling last week. The Broncos just have better personnel to win that type of ballgame, with Nix’s demonstrated clutch gene and Dobbins rolling as the best running back on either roster.

Troy Renck, columnist: Broncos 19, Texans 16

The Broncos should lose this game without Pat Surtain II. But Denver’s front will feast on the Texans’ offensive line. Pressure remains the best way to protect cornerbacks. The key is for Sean Payton not to get cute. Keep it simple. Establish the run. Protect the ball. Gash with play-action and rollouts, and let a strip sack of C.J. Stroud set up a winning field goal from reigning AFC Special Teams Player of the Month Wil Lutz.

Sean Keeler, columnist: Texans 24, Broncos 23

Houston’s tied with New England for the highest ratio of TDs allowed to opponents in its own red zone (70.59). The real trick? Getting there. And getting to C.J. Stroud. Vance Joseph threw all kinds of off-speed looks at Dak Prescott. Is there enough spin on the curve to mess with Stroud, who shredded the 49ers’ blitz last week? Houston is 3-10 in the C.J. era when its QB1 is sacked four or more times. The Texans are 6-13 when he’s been sacked three times or more — and 8-1 when it’s one sack or fewer.