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? That����ap 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. That����ap 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

It����ap 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. That����ap 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, it����ap in Vegas after playing on the East Coast before and it����ap 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 it����ap 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, it����ap 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

So Payton got creative, as multiple people who saw or heard about the meeting recalled, and instead played a clip from the movie “Rudy” as Rothstein’s introduction.

“Ppl (sic) loved it,” one person in the building texted The Post.

Rothstein had no old tape, indeed, because his playing days ended back in Section VIII high school football in Bellmore, N.Y. He pivoted immediately to something different. In 2009, while studying at the State University of New York at Cortland, he asked new offensive line coach Eric Jendryaszek if he could help out as a student assistant. At the same time, SUNY Cortland’s football program was implementing a new technology called

Then-head coach Dan MacNeill told Jendryaszek that he’d learned one of his assistants had already learned the software before even arriving on campus.

“It was frickin’ Evan,” Jendryaszek recalled.

“Frickin’ Evan,” nearly two decades later, exists as a near-invisible public figure around Dove Valley and Empower Field since advancing from Detroit to New England to Denver. He did not want to be interviewed for this story. He has no biography on the Broncos‘ . And yet his mind, as one Broncos source told The Post, was “very impactful” in the team’s sterling 11-2 record in one-score wins in 2025.

Second-year receiver Pat Bryant echoed the sentiment, asked how important Rothstein was in Denver’s close-game run.

“Very, bro,” Bryant told The Post. “When we do two-minute drills, situational, Sean (Payton) kinda steps to the side and lets Evan go to work. He’ll turn around, ask Evan questions. We come in here, we watch film on it, (Evan) will tell us what we did wrong.

“So, he’s basically like another offensive coordinator, for our situational football.”

Three coaches on Denver’s staff spoke to the entire team consistently in 2025. One, of course, was Payton. One was senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt, who speaks on Saturday nights before game day. And the other was Rothstein, who goes in-depth each week on situational and late-game mechanics.

“He’s been a tremendous asset, and almost like an air traffic controller on gameday where — his mind, it����ap racing with timeouts, and clock and situation,” Payton said in late July.

In Denver, Rothstein is indirectly part of a growing fraternity across the NFL, as the league has gradually come to recognize the value of analytically minded coaches who operate in “game-management roles” on game days. Every head coach across the NFL, as Ravens game-management coordinator Charlie Gelman told The Post, has some right-hand resource they trust in such a role. Some are in front-office research departments; most are buried on coaching staffs. All, though, are generally tasked with spitting out algorithmic data that help inform a head coach’s decision-making around fourth downs, two-point conversions, timeouts and beyond.

Rothstein is a unique case in a unique field, a coach who has worked hands-on under Jim Caldwell, Bill Belichick and Payton and who is also a “math wizard,” as Caldwell put it.

“He’s an extremely bright individual,” Jendryaszek said. “If it wasn’t for his passion for football, he could be building rocket ships.”

And before long, Rothstein — or one of these fraternity members across the NFL — could take the analytics revolution from their play-caller’s ear to their own call-sheet.

“I don’t want to speak for Evan, but guys who – I’m assuming like, Evan and myself, and some of these guys that are more on the coaching side, we’d all love to get to that point where we’re calling plays one day,” one NFL game-management specialist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Post. “I think it’s trending that way. I think we’re getting more and more coaching responsibilities every year. I think it����ap either going to take a special head coach to give that opportunity, or a special ownership.”

“I think one of us just has to find a way to prove it, and get that first job.”

Gelman, who was hired as Baltimore’s game-management coordinator this offseason after spending three years in a similar role in Indianapolis, began experimenting with football analytics in the seventh grade. As a student assistant at Duke from 2018 to 2021, he built a win-probability model that the football program eventually adopted as its own. And after spending a year in Baltimore interfacing with then-Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, Colts head coach Shane Steichen called about a job opening.

The problem, of sorts: Gelman was a not-so-grizzled 24-year-old at the time.

“I was scared that they would think I was too young,” Gelman said. “So I grew out a full goatee, just to look older.”

It worked well enough to land him the gig as Steichen’s game-manager in Indianapolis, where Gelman came to understand his job in simple terms: maximize win probability. Utilizing the programming language R, he has built models that use decades of data from NFL games, take commands and output tangible recommendations for late-game situations. On gamedays, Gelman’s program spits out 116 individual sheets of recommended decisions — game managers still need analog charts given the — depending on specific down, yardage and distance.

“I think around the league, we all think very similarly,” Gelman said. “The question is just — how do each of us go about our businesses in our different, unique ways?”

Caldwell, the former and head coach, learned from four years overseeing Rothstein that the game manager has algorithmic processes for late-game decisions that “no one else does,” as Caldwell said. He would not reveal state secrets. But Rothstein’s process dates back to his time at SUNY Cortland, where he used the DVSport film program to create “logic statements” to predict and analyze opponents’ play-calling tendencies based on formation, down and distance.

Jendryaszek explained that Rothstein would present a team’s usage of a “Trips” formation, with three receivers aligned on the same side of the field. Rothstein could explain their tendencies for strong-side runs. Or weak-side runs. Or five-step drops. Or quick-game looks. Or categorize those tendencies by down and distance. And he built this all, Jendryaszek marveled, from scratch.

“He just kinda built that out as an 18-, 19-year-old, which was crazy,” Jendryaszek said. “No one was asking him to do it. He just loved that aspect of it. And he even started to work on his own playbook, back in the day.”

Once Caldwell arrived in Detroit in January 2014, he began to sit down with Rothstein, who had been with the Lions for two previous seasons as a special-teams quality control coach. Every single night, through that winter, spring and summer, Caldwell and Rothstein kicked around potential game situations and ideas for how to approach them. “Go find out why we should make this decision,” Caldwell told him, “instead of this.”

Rothstein would take 10 to 15 years of recent NFL data, Caldwell said, and analyze the correct answer. And he would communicate clearly, in Caldwell’s ear, on Sundays.

“Let me put it this way,” Caldwell said, speaking on Rothstein’s impact. “All you need to do is look at — I think Denver had, how many one-score games they won … a bunch, right? Take a look at us in Detroit.”

The Lions had a .563 win percentage in Caldwell’s tenure with Rothstein from 2014-17 — and a .595 win percentage in one-score games, according to The Post’s research.

“Besides our quarterback, who was great, obviously, Matthew Stafford, it was because of the conserving time, or eating up the clock,” Caldwell said.

According to The Post’s research of available NFL staff data, 17 of 32 franchises currently have some sort of front-office or coaching staffer in a specific “game-management” role; plenty more employ staffers who handle such responsibilities without an official title. The profession has expanded in the last decade, as Buccaneers director of football research Zach Beistline told The Post. And the effect is plain in 2-point and fourth-down utilization: the number of total league-wide fourth-down tries has nearly doubled from 2016 to 2025, according to The Post’s research.

The “really good game-management teams,” as one NFL game-manager told The Post, have even begun to start throwing challenge flags on previous plays in situations where they’d instead use a timeout — to capitalize on even a minuscule chance that an official might overturn a call.

“I think it����ap definitely shifted to like — every coach has someone they trust with this situation,” Gelman said. “Because it����ap a lot to think about. They need someone to be thinking one step ahead at all times.”

In Denver, Payton has Rothstein, who the Broncos head coach tried to hire in New Orleans in 2021 before Rothstein picked New England. And Rothstein, too, is widely respected across the league’s game-management community — within his own silo in Denver.

On Wednesday nights, a group of game-management coordinators across the NFL holds an informal Zoom call to discuss some of the league’s replay decisions from the previous week. It is done, as multiple game-management staffers told The Post, to help analyze officiating decisions and therefore inform individual challenge-flag decisions. No privileged information is shared. Except sometimes it is, and one NFL game-manager told The Post he likes to log on to “see what people let slip by.”

“Evan,” that game-manager told The Post, “does not make an appearance on those.”

Another smart decision, it seems, in a string of them in Denver.

“There’s probably not anything he can’t do,” Caldwell said of Rothstein. “I mean, I wouldn’t (be surprised) if he becomes a head coach one day. That����ap a possibility. And he’s capable. There’s no question about it.”

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.

Los Angeles Rams

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 5-1; Over-under win total: 11.5

Strengths: Many. But the most topical place to start is the defensive front, where Jared Verse has been swapped out for Myles Garrett. He’s joining Byron Young on the edges, an arrangement appealing enough to tempt defensive tackle GOAT candidate Aaron Donald into possibly coming out of retirement. The Rams have also added cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson to their defense. They’re deep at the offensive skill positions, led by receiver Puka Nacua. They’re stacked on both sides of the ball.

Weaknesses: Can the reigning MVP be considered a potential weakness? The fickleness of a 38-year-old NFL player’s body can, at least. Matthew Stafford is entering his 18th season with no indication that a decline is imminent, but the more miles you put on your star quarterback, the more natural it is to worry about durability. Clearly, the Rams identify with that idea at least a little, based on their choice to draft QB Ty Simpson 13th overall. Still, the point is that you have to squint to identify weaknesses on this roster.

Seattle Seahawks

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 11-1; Over-under win total: 10.5

Strengths: Defense won Seattle the championship, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be a superb unit again during the title defense. Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II and Jarran Reed are an excellent trio on the interior defensive line. If 2025 trade deadline acquisition Rashid Shaheed can increase his production to capitalize on the attention on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the receiver room should also be potent in Seattle.

Weaknesses: The Seahawks lost starting running back and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to Kansas City in free agency, leaving behind questions in the backfield — at least while Zach Charbonnet remains sidelined by the ACL he tore in January. Rookie Jadarian Price will be an X-factor, drafted at the end of the first round to help plug the hole.

San Francisco 49ers

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 17-1; Over-under win total: 10.5

Strengths: Valor Christian High School’s own Christian McCaffrey is coming off one of the best years of his decorated career. He rushed for 1,200 yards while also amassing his most receptions and yards through the air since 2019. If he’s healthy, he’ll continue to touch the ball more than any player in the league. And quarterback Brock Purdy is steady at making sure the ball finds him, along with San Francisco’s other weapons.

Weaknesses: Heads, shoulders, knees and toes. McCaffrey, of course, is one of the most injury-prone stars in the NFL. Purdy missed half of last season. Nick Bosa is preparing to return from a torn ACL, and the 49ers’ pass rush tends to suffer dramatically without him. Ricky Pearsall has recently been placed on season-ending IR, thinning out a receiver room headlined by newcomers Christian Kirk and Mike Evans (and now Deebo Samuel).

Arizona Cardinals

BetMGM says: Win Super Bowl: 500-1; Over-under win total: 3.5

Strengths: Trey McBride has the enviable task of trying to live up to his monstrous 2025 season, in which he cemented himself as the best pass-catching tight end in the league. Flanked by Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson, he’s the centerpiece of a pretty talented group of skill players in Phoenix.

Weaknesses: Unfortunately, the Cardinals don’t have a quarterback capable of truly maximizing those players. Jacoby Brissett is likely to be their opening-day starter after the release of Kyler Murray. Gardner Minshew and rookie Carson Beck are waiting in the wings. Between the QB room and a potential bottom-10 defense, this roster remains pretty incomplete.

Sean Keeler: That it’s OK to keep the floor for 2026 a Mile High. Just don’t stick the ceiling in the mesosphere. I‘ll stand by 11-6, but I’d be stunned if they came storming out of the gates to get there. The NFL loves competitive socialism, which is why it’s so hard to be consistently great or to consistently stink it up the way, say, the Browns have for decades. Since the AFL-NFL merger of 1970, only three teams have won 14 or more games in consecutive NFL seasons: Chicago in ’85 and ’86; San Francisco in ”89 and ’90 and New England in ’03 and ’04. There’s a difference between parity and punishment. This fight card sure feels like the latter.

Renck: A lot of people are saying ����apountry should relax. That this gauntlet is the price of returning to relevance. Win a division. Play the best teams the following season. Some of us remember covering great Broncos teams year after year. The schedule is not the issue. It is the order of the games. The Broncos’ opening stretch seems punitive. You are telling me the league could not have mixed in an Arizona, Las Vegas or Miami early? They did that for the Chargers and Chiefs. It allows a team time to gain traction. The Broncos must run on rocket fuel out of the starting block or risk going up in smoke. I am predicting the Broncos go 3-3 to open, but not with much conviction.

Keeler: I want to argue for 4-2, but I’m not sure I can with a straight face. Because that means either a.) stealing a road game against Jim Harbaugh and a probably healthy Justin Herbert, or b.) sweeping the Rams and Seahawks at home. It’s almost as if the league went to extra lengths to throw a wrench into Payton’s favorite (and most successful) month, historically — ����apountry’s October features trips to San Francisco (Oct. 4) and to the Chargers (Oct. 11) as a back-breaking back-to-back, followed by the defending Super Bowl champs (Seattle) coming to Denver on a short week. A 2-1 record in September, even with Patrick Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence and Matthew Stafford on the fight card, is doable. But if you want to get to November with a winning record, it might become mandatory.

Renck: If Bo Nix is healthy, if Davis Webb is still calling plays, the Broncos will take off in October. Yes, even with games at San Francisco, at Chargers and home against the Seahawks and Cardinals. While Payton owns a 4-7 record in September with the Broncos, he loves October more than pumpkins. He boasts a 10-3 record for Denver in the second month. That means the Broncos will win two of three games against the 49ers, Chargers and Seahawks before clobbering the Cardinals. It’s all about surviving the start, getting fat on snacks before finishing with the Bills, Patriots and Chargers. The Broncos will be a better team with a worse record, finishing 11-6, a mark that could mean a tiebreaker determines the AFC West champ.

Keeler: Unless you’re Pete Carroll, precedent with NFL head coaches matters. Even if you don’t like Payton’s play-calling, you have to like the resume. Sunshine Sean won 13 or more games in a season four other times as the boss of the Saints. In the following campaign, his teams won 13 games again once, 12 games once, and 11 games twice. Average victory total? 11.75. If you’re setting the over/under at 10.5 wins, give me the over, my friend. Just don’t give me the over by much.

And if Thursday night on social media was any indication, ����apountry has indigestion.

At age 62 and a first-time grandpa, Sean Payton operates on the premise that everything that demands attention does not deserve attention. But even he must take notice of the Broncos’ buzzsaw of an opening schedule.

Who did Payton (bleep) off in the league office now?

In the first six weeks, the Broncos host five playoff teams from a year ago. The one that did not qualify? The Kansas City Chiefs. And Denver gets them on the road on Monday night to open the season.

How is that for a punch in the eyeballs?

In Payton’s first three seasons, the Broncos never faced more than two previous postseason qualifiers in the first six weeks, and played six total. They went 2-4 in those games.

Payton might as well puff on a Sherlock Holmes pipe, given how much he loves all the smoke. But this is a bit much.

It looks like the NFL put out a fraud alert on the Broncos, and wants to find out if 2025 really happened. You know the 14 wins, the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the ending of the Chiefs’ nine-year stranglehold on the division?

It is unfair. And it is perfect.

Payton never has feelings of inadequacy or insecurity. Give him a test, make him an underdog and he rallies players around the cause like Mel Gibson in “Braveheart.”

Remember the Chiefs’ game last season without J.K. Dobbins and Patrick Surtain? Or the smothering win at Tampa Bay in 2024 after an 0-2 start?

The Broncos’ first goal is to win the AFC West. That guarantees a home playoff game. Staying tethered early represents the biggest challenge to a second straight division crown, along with surviving the final three weeks against the Bills, Patriots and Chargers.

There is a strong chance that the Broncos will be better and win fewer games. You probably know this if you have gone through the schedule game by game and realized they face 10 playoff teams in 2025.

Thank goodness for the Jets, who have the league’s longest playoff drought, the Cardinals, who hired Nathaniel Hackett to run their offense, and the Dolphins, whose roster suggests they are not even trying.

By the morning of Oct. 16, we will know whether the Broncos are legit. That is the day after facing the defending champion Seattle Seahawks at home on Thursday night, one of five standalone games. If they navigate at the Chiefs, Jaguars, Rams, at the 49ers, at the Chargers and Seattle with a 3-3 record or better, they will be poised to reach the Super Bowl.

Anything less will be alarming and likely feature questions about Payton’s next contract and quarterback Bo Nix’s health.

So, let’s borrow Nathan MacKinnon’s goggles, flippers and snorkel and dive in:

Week 1 at Chiefs

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest annoyance index on scale 1-10: 7. The Broncos would have preferred this game at home. The Chiefs are 8-2 in their last 10 openers at Arrowhead Stadium, and it likely marks the return of Patrick Mahomes. But the future Hall of Famer is coming off ACL surgery, might lack mobility, and has a receiving corps that frightens nobody. Steal this game, and the Broncos will have a card up their sleeve all season.

Week 2 vs. Jaguars

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 6. The “smaller market” Jaguars delivered a big punch to the Broncos’ gut last season, snapping their 12-game home winning streak. Denver fears no one. But facing the Jaguars after the Chiefs and before the Rams is nasty business. Trevor Lawrence is willing to take sacks to make big plays. This needs to be the game the Broncos show how takeaways have become a top priority.

Week 3 vs Rams

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 3. Sean McVay is who Sean Payton used to be. The wunderkind continues pursuing a second Super Bowl title. Payton, who is close friends with the Rams coach, was 46 when he won his ring. He hasn’t been back since. McVay claimed his at age 36. He boasts the reigning MVP in Matthew Stafford and weapons that conjure images of the Broncos with Peyton Manning. This could be the day where we find out if Davis Webb is really calling plays or the offensive coordinator in name only.

Week 4 at San Francisco

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 8. The music has died. But the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon takes over the streets, including a 5K and KIDS ROCK event on Saturday. If vice president of operations Chip Conway, a tireless worker in a thankless job, books the wrong hotel, he will likely be forced to run back to Denver. The good news? The 49ers are aging like Nick Nolte, making this a very winnable game.

Week 5 at Los Angeles Chargers

Jazz Fest annoyance ranking: 4. Forget the glitz. Los Angeles is a business trip. Jim Harbaugh has given the Chargers a jolt, but this isn’t exactly like playing Pete Carroll’s 2004 USC Trojans at the Coliseum. The problem with the Chargers in this spot is the physical games leading up to it. The Chargers want a rock fight. The Broncos’ ability to pull off the upset will depend on limiting penalties and multiple big strikes from Justin Herbert, who figures to improve under former Smoky Hill grad Mike McDaniels.

Week 6 vs. Seattle Seahawks

Jazz Fest annoyance index: 6. By my math, the Broncos are facing the league’s best two teams back-to-back. It was for games like these that Denver acquired Jaylen Waddle. You have to be able to keep up with the Rams, and deliver a few gash plays through the air (looking at you Waddle) and on the ground (hello, J.K. Dobbins) to stiff arm the Seahawks’ pass rush.

It definitely feels like something is up with this schedule set up. It is tilted with heavyweight matchups. And September has not been their friend. Payton is 4-7 in the first month as the Broncos coach.

If they can hold serve through mid-October, the next eight weeks offer a runway for a long winning streak or a 6-2 stretch.

The schedule matters more to teams with poor coaches and bad quarterbacks. That is no longer the case with the Broncos. They are equipped to get in the ring or an octagon.

But even for those who believe orange sunsets are an ode to the Broncos must acknowledge the challenge ahead. Those opening six games are straight out of the SEC. In all, they play six teams projected to win 10 games.

The Broncos will return to the playoffs. Mother Nature helped knock them out last year. The challenge this season will be avoiding a haymaker from September and October.

John Harbaugh

Not only did the newly minted New York Giants head coach have two picks in the top 10 after trading Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati recently, but then the draft started and perhaps the single most talented player in the 2026 class fell right into his lap. That, of course, is Ohio State’s Arvell Reese. He may well play on the edge, but the Giants also have Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter and Brian Burnes. So the Giants can trade Thibodeaux and collect more premium draft capital or they can play Reese as a chess piece off the ball early in his career. Then Harbaugh landed Miami right tackle Francis Mauigoa at No. 10, bolstering the offensive line and providing a long-term bookend with left tackle Andrew Thomas. If you want to turn a team around quickly, you’ve got to be good up front. Harbaugh, no surprise, leaned into that on both sides of the ball in the first round.

NFL draft 2026 tracker: Picks, instant reaction and more live coverage

Whichever 2027 QB the Jets draft next spring

Former Broncos GM Darren Mougey had a busy night, selecting Texas Tech OLB David Bailey at No. 2 overall, Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq at No. 16 and then trading back into the first round to also get WR Omar Cooper Jr. at No. 30. That is one heck of a haul. It����ap good news in the present day, but it����ap really good news for whichever quarterback the Jets take next spring. That����ap when it looks like this rebuild project really, actually starts to get evaluated. Sure, Geno Smith will probably throw the ball to Sadiq a lot this fall, but those are the kind of players who make life easier on a young quarterback. That guy is coming, probably very early in the 2027 first round.

Former Broncos secondary coach Christian Parker

Parker got the job as Dallas’ defensive coordinator, knowing that the unit needed a world of help. It started in free agency and the trade market and now the Cowboys have also doubled up in the first round of the draft. They traded a pair of fifth-round picks to slide up one spot and nab Ohio State safety Caleb Downs — on the shortest of lists as the best player in the class — at No. 11 overall, then took outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence out of UCF at No. 23 overall. Downs is ready-made. Lawrence … we’ll see, but he’s got a ton of talent, he’s long and he’s fast. He’ll have a chance to see early time opposite Rashan Gary. Parker’s depth chart looks considerably different after just one day of the draft.

Losers

Matthew Stafford

When the Los Angeles Rams came onto the clock at No. 13 overall, Stafford could have looked at the board and seen players like Sadiq and WR Makai Lemon and thought, yeah, those guys would really help. Same with any number of tackles. Instead, the Rams took who they hope someday will be his successor. That����ap quarterback Ty Simpson out of Alabama. Teams can say as many times as they want that they’re happy to have their veteran — particularly when that veteran is the reigning MVP — but at some point, you want to see what the young guy has. Maybe that’ll be three years from now. But maybe it won’t be.

A.J. Brown’s Philadelphia landlord

Just kidding, Brown probably owns a house. But his days in the City of Brotherly Love are almost certainly numbered. Somebody somewhere might already be pumping out Patriots jerseys with his name on the back. As if there wasn’t enough smoke around the possibility that Brown gets dealt to New England -- it won’t happen until after June 1 for reasons related to Brown’s contract — the Eagles picked Lemon at No. 20 in the first round. That after they also traded for receiver Dontayvian Wicks just before the draft and also signed Hollywood Brown. The other Brown can probably start looking for real estate in Massachusetts.

Patrick Mahomes

The Chiefs star quarterback is working back from a torn ACL. When he returns, he will certainly be happy to have CB Mansoor Delane and DL Peter Woods on the other side of the line of scrimmage. But to not get any help in the first round on the offensive side of the ball? That����ap got to be at least a little disappointing somewhere in there. The Chiefs hardly ever pick in the top 10 and they pressed that positioning even more by trading up three spots to grab Delane. There were receivers aplenty -- Cooper and Denzel Boston among them — and RB Jadarian Price available late in the first round, but Brent Veach and company went with Woods instead. No qualms with either pick. Just, no help for Mahomes, either.

SEATTLE — Sam Darnold threw for three touchdowns, the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense came up with a critical fourth-down stop, and Seattle advanced to the Super Bowl, beating the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in an electrifying NFC championship game on Sunday.

Led by second-year coach Mike Macdonald and Darnold — an eight-year veteran playing for his fifth team — the Seahawks (16-3) reached the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history and first in 11 years. Seattle lost that most recent appearance to New England, its opponent in two weeks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

With Los Angeles (14-6) facing fourth-and-4 at the Seattle 6, coach Sean McVay elected to go for it and Matthew Stafford’s pass was by Devon Witherspoon. The Rams didn’t get the ball back until there were 25 seconds left, and Puka Nacua was tackled inbounds near midfield on the final play.

Stafford threw for 374 yards and three touchdowns, but the Rams were undone by critical errors, including a muffed punt by Xavier Smith in the third quarter. On the next play, Darnold connected with Jake Bobo for a 17-yard touchdown and a 24-13 lead.

Darnold, who flopped in his with the Minnesota Vikings, and completed 25 of 36 passes for 346 yards with no turnovers. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 153 yards receiving — the second-most in a playoff game in franchise history — and a touchdown on 10 catches.

“It����ap amazing,” Darnold said. “To be able to do it with these guys in this locker room, though, with this coaching staff, that����ap why it means the world to me.”

The Seahawks led 31-20 late in the third quarter on Darnold’s 13-yard TD pass to Cooper Kupp, but the Rams got back into the game when Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen was after breaking up a pass to Nacua on third-and-12, giving Los Angeles a first down.

On the next play, Stafford threw at Woolen again, and Nacua beat him in the corner of the end zone for a 34-yard touchdown.

The Rams forced a punt on Seattle’s next possession and went on a 14-play, 84-yard drive that came up empty thanks to Witherspoon’s pass breakup.

Seattle stayed aggressive on its final possession, with Darnold throwing for three first downs to run out most of the clock.

Davante Adams and Kyren Williams had receiving TDs for the Rams, and Kenneth Walker III rushed for a score for the Seahawks.

Darnold set the tone with his first completion of the game, a 51-yarder to Rashid Shaheed. Four plays later, Walker ran 2 yards for a TD to make it 7-0.

The Rams settled for field goals by Harrison Mevis on their next two possessions. With Los Angeles trailing 10-6, Stafford led a 12-play, 87-yard drive and connected with a wide-open Williams for a 9-yard score.

Los Angeles forced a three-and-out late in the second quarter, but after two straight incompletions by Stafford, the Rams punted the ball back, and it took Darnold just 34 seconds to put the Seahawks ahead for good.

Smith-Njigba caught a deep ball from Darnold, absorbed a big hit by Kam Curl and . Four plays later, Darnold and Smith-Njigba hooked up for a 14-yard TD that made it 17-13 heading into halftime.

“I told my team, I’m going to do whatever it takes. Whatever y’all ask of me, I’m gonna get it done, whatever that might be,” said Smith-Njigba, the NFL’s leading receiver in the regular season. “And that����ap what you saw today. You just saw grit, determination, you saw passion out there and you saw a group, a collective, going out there and getting the job done.”

Injuries

Rams: WR Jordan Whittington (chest) left in the third quarter. Defensive end Kobie Turner (cramps) also exited in the third.

Seahawks: LB Drake Thomas (shoulder) left in the fourth quarter. FB Brady Russell (hand) was injured in the second half and did not return.

Up next

Rams: Stafford turns 38 next month and has to wonder if this was his last, best chance at a second Super Bowl title.

Seahawks: Seek their second Super Bowl title after winning it all in the 2013 season with coach Pete Carroll and the “Legion of Boom” defense.

He never thought twice about losing.

“Never a doubt — No. 9 is with us,” Nacau said with a wide smile in reference to the team’s 37-year-old All-Pro quarterback, Matthew Stafford.

Stafford calmly led the Rams 71 yards by completing 6 of 7 passes — the only incompletion coming on a drop by Davante Adams — before capping it with a to Colby Parkinson with 38 seconds left, lifting the Rams to a dramatic, come-from-behind 34-31 win over the Carolina Panthers in the opening game of the NFL playoffs on Saturday.

2026 NFL playoffs brackets, seeds, schedules, TV times, results and more

Stafford finished 24 of 42 for 304 yards with three touchdown passes and an interception, while Nacua had 10 receptions for 111 yards and two total touchdowns as the Rams (13-5), who were 10 1/2-point favorites, advanced to the divisional round.

“You see him out there, he just has the best composure of anyone I have ever seen,” Parkinson said. “He knows that we are going to go make it happen and we completely trust him. … I knew he was going to have to throw a back-shoulder ball -- and that was a perfect ball. Like perfect. It couldn’t have been placed any better.”

Stafford credited his calmness to his 17 years of NFL experience.

“I have been in that spot a lot in my life -- and I love that spot,” Stafford said. “I would rather be me having to go out there with our offense and do it then watch from the sideline. You can make it stressful or you can make it calm and collected, and think the latter is what we were today.”

Bryce Young threw for 264 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score for Carolina (8-10), which finished its second season under coach Dave Canales by losing four of its final five games.

Jalen Coker had career highs with nine receptions for 134 yards with a touchdown and Chuba Hubbard ran for 46 yards and two touchdowns as the Panthers lost in their first playoff appearance since the 2017 season.

“There is such a mix of emotions right now in the locker room, from guys being proud of what we accomplished and where we got, to being sick about the opportunity that was right there in front of us,” Canales said. “And that is going to sting.”

The Panthers, who beat the Rams 31-28 on this same field six weeks ago, fell behind 14-0 early but stormed back to take a 24-20 lead on Hubbard’s second touchdown of the run game early in the fourth quarter.

Stafford, who was selected as an All-Pro earlier in the day, led the Rams back down on the field and found Kyren Williams for a 13-yard touchdown to regain the lead.

Los Angeles appeared to be in charge after getting a stop on defense, giving Stafford the ball back.

But a holding penalty put the Rams behind the sticks and forced a punt, to set the Panthers up the Rams 30.

Four plays later, in the left corner of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown to give Carolina a 31-27 lead with 2:39 left, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

But the celebrations quickly turned to silence after Stafford gave the Rams the lead again.

Carolina’s last attempt to move into field-goal range ended when Jimmy Horn dropped a fourth-down pass from Young.

“Yeah, total team effort,” said Stafford, a leading candidate for league MVP after leading the league in yards passing and touchdowns. “Obviously had some mistakes along the way. I turned it over, we had a punt blocked, didn’t score before the half when we probably should have. So, a lot to clean up, but found a way to win it late.”

Carolina was hoping the return of former quarterback Cam Newton to Bank of America Stadium to hit the “Keep Pounding” drum before the game would give the Panthers a little extra mojo early, but things didn’t start well.

After the Rams’ defense came up with a stop on fourth down at midfield on Carolina’s opening drive, Stafford quickly moved the offense downfield and found Nacua for a 14-yard touchdown over the middle for a 7-0 lead.

Nacua made it 14-0 on a 5-yard run following Young’s interception.

Carolina cut the lead 17-14 at halftime after a 1-yard touchdown run by Hubbard and a 16-yard scramble by Young, the second-longest TD run of his career.

The Rams had a chance to build on the lead, but Nacau dropped a potential third TD on a pass down the right sideline from Stafford just before halftime.

Rams coach Sean McVay admitted it wasn’t his team’s best effort and there is plenty to clean up this week.

“We are going to need to be able to play better if we expected to advance,” McVay said.

But Rams defensive lineman Kobie Turner said rectifying those mistakes is something that can be addressed on Sunday.

“There are no style points in the playoffs,” Turner said. “It����ap all about survive and advance.”

Stafford sets Rams mark

Stafford surpassed Kurt Warner for the most postseason passing yards and completions in Rams history.

Up next

Rams: Await their opponent in the divisional round.

Panthers: Season over.

Would you report on win/loss records of sophomore NFL quarterbacks?

— Jim Taylor, Littleton

What’s the fun in just talking win-loss record?

Matter of fact, we wrote a while back about the impressive seasons several of the quarterbacks from the 2024 class have engineered and, more broadly, how impressive the group has been through two seasons.

Consider that three of the top four seeds in the playoffs are led by 2024 QBs — No. 1 Denver (Bo Nix) and No. 2 New England (Drake Maye) in the AFC and No. 2 Chicago (Caleb Williams) in the NFC.

Let����ap start by pointing out that wins are a team stat, not a quarterback stat. A quarterback can play magnificently in a loss and horrendously in a win. Nix is no exception. The Broncos have lost four games in which he posted a quarterback rating above 106 and won six times when he sported a quarterback rating below 70.

One of the great things about this class is that nobody’s path has been entirely linear. Nix clearly walked into the most stable situation and he’s taken advantage of it, helping the Broncos qualify for the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. That includes a 14-3 regular season and the No. 1 seed this year. He also didn’t take a big statistical leap in his second season, whereas Williams and Maye each did.

Maye has by far the best single season of the class so far. He could well win the MVP this year. Williams took a massive leap in Year 2 and forms a formidable long-term pairing with coach Ben Johnson. Daniels had a Year 2 to forget due to injury, but he looked like a star as a rookie and helped lead Washington to the NFC Championship Game.

The jury is out on Michael Penix and J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy was the youngest of the group to begin with and then lost his rookie season to injury, but 2025 provided reason for concern. Penix now will have a new head coach and, presumably, coordinator going forward after Raheem Morris was fired this week. He’s already the third quarterback in the class to experience a head coaching change and you can throw Daniels in the mix, too, because offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is leaving the Commanders.

Change worked wonders for Williams and Maye. We’ll see with Penix.

Here’s a chart with several stats, though obviously not an entire encapsulation, for the 2024 class so far. Judge for yourself. If the draft were held again tomorrow, a lot of folks around the league would bet Maye, Daniels and Williams all still get picked before Nix. But Nix isn’t going sixth again, either.

Bottom line: Four of the six teams that took quarterbacks in 2024 are very happy with their guy through two seasons. That’s already a heck of a class.

Class of 2024 QBs

Hello Parker. Whew, it’s been an amazing ride when one recalls where ����apountry stood four years ago. Heading to the playoffs, I can’t help but wonder if giving more touches (and more consecutive touches) to Jaleel McLaughlin would help improve our running game production. For several games now, he seems to be able to pick up more yards in tight spaces than we’re seeing from RJ Harvey.

— Ted Loehr, Montrose

I wrote about this some after the game, so I won’t spend a whole lot of time on it, but the bottom line is I agree with you.

McLaughlin’s up to 5.1 yards per carry and the Broncos coaching staff on a near weekly basis comments on how good he’s been since J.K. Dobbins’ injury. You lose a bit of the homerun threat when he’s in the game compared to Harvey, but right now McLaughlin’s getting the yards that are there to be had in the run game at a more efficient clip.

Here’s the trick, though: Harvey is really good with the ball in space. So can Denver dial up McLaughlin’s usage in the run game, continue to get Harvey some touches out of the backfield and in the passing game and find the balance without being predictable? That����ap the question.

While RJ Harvey has had a productive rookie season, it seems to me he is not a No. 1 back who can carry the load, primarily, I believe, because of his size. It’s been more obvious since he’s become the primary back that when he gets to the second level, he gets absolutely hammered by LBs, and stopped dead or knocked backward. He’s not a pile mover. So, while he clearly has a lot of value in the Payton system, don’t the Broncos still need a true No. 1 back with more tackle-breaking ability?

— Dave, Charlotte, N.C.

Completely agree that Harvey is not a finished product, but have to disagree with you on the rationale.

In fact, I’d say Harvey has the most make-you-miss ability among Denver backs in at least in the past handful of seasons. He’s also forceful and violent when he’s decisive. Decision-making, though, is where the rookie still has a lot of developing to do. Nearly every time the Broncos get him the ball out in space, he delivers a hit or makes somebody miss and collects extra yardage. But when he’s asked to make the run-game reads in the backfield, it����ap hit and miss. If you’re in the wrong gap or hesitating, yeah, you’re going to get thumped.

Payton’s scouting on running backs is interesting but it makes sense to me. He differentiates between short and small. Harvey is short, but he ain’t small.

Another way Payton puts it: You’ve got to have mass and, uh, rump. Harvey’s built that way. He’s explosive. He’s just not efficient in the whole spectrum of the running game yet.

Whether he’s a true lead back, capable of playing on all three downs, is still an open question. He’s talented, though, that����ap for sure.

Everyone always says how difficult Sean Payton offense is, but yet how come Bo Nix doesn’t need to wear a cheat sheet on his wrist like most QBs do? Is Bo Nix that smart that he has memorized the plays that he hears in the helmet from Sean Payton?

— Mike, St. Louis, Mo.

Hey Mike, good question. Nix wore a wrist band last year, though he had it attached to his belt rather than actually wearing it on his wrist. He had it for the season opener back in September, too, but doesn’t appear to have used it since.

Quarterbacks and play callers use those wristbands for all kinds of reasons. With Payton and Nix, in particular, part of the rationale was to get some of Payton’s most wordy calls on the band so the coach could give short-hand to Nix, creating a couple of extra seconds for the quarterback to spit out a call that might be15 or 20 words long.

That only works, though, if the play-caller and the QB are both comfortable with it. If it����ap easier to repeat the words as you hear them in the headset or if it����ap easier for the coach to feel a rhythm by saying all the words, that just might work better.

Certainly, Nix’s command of the offense has grown, too.

This a follow-up question about the hit on Pat Bryant in the Jags game.  Your answer about the defenseless player rule was appreciated.  However, following the hit, I wondered about whether there are unwritten rules of football.  Down 14 points with 30 seconds left, the viciousness of the hit seemed more about injuring than winning a game that was already settled.  We regularly hear about the unwritten rules of baseball, hockey and basketball.  Do the Broncos owe Montaric Brown or another Jag at the next meeting?

— Shawn Thompson, Denver

Yeah, you could make that argument. But you could just as easily use the same rationale to argue that there’s no reason to put Bryant in that position in the first place. I’m not going to sit here and crush Nix after the fact — he was emotional on the field and said after the game that he felt like he was responsible. And while the sequence was not all on him, if you want to make an argument that the hit was unnecessary because of the game situation (and strip away the rulebook part of the conversation), then it����ap fair to wonder what good was going to come from throwing back across the middle under the same conditions.

At this point, chalk it up to a bad deal all around that Bryant was fortunate to come out the other side of in fairly good shape.

Now, as for the Broncos and Jaguars, between that hit, the “small market” stuff, Jacksonville being the lone team to win in Denver this year and the fact that both teams have been terrific overall, you don’t need to convince me that it would be one heck of an AFC Championship Game at Empower Field.

I don’t want to take away from Matthew Stafford or Drake Maye, but I think Justin Herbert should be getting a lot more consideration as MVP. After all, what would the Chargers be without him, and isn’t that the definition of MVP?

— Mark, Centennial

I hear what you’re saying but I’m not sure Herbert����ap numbers stack up with Stafford and Maye this year.

That takes nothing away, though, from the epic job Herbert did dragging the Chargers through the second half of the season. Their offensive line was battered and he got it, too. He got hit more than any quarterback in football. Broke his left hand. Just kept on playing and winning until Week 17 against Houston.

It����ap a heck of a season. Not many quarterbacks could have done what he did. But it wasn’t MVP-level.

Josh Allen had a similar Superman run in Buffalo down the stretch. There were some incredible individual seasons across positions like San Francisco RB Christian McCaffrey, Seattle WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cleveland DE Myles Garrett. You could make an argument in absentia for Green Bay edge Micah Parsons, whose torn ACL against Denver marked the exact moment at which the Packers’ defense went from among the league’s best to getting regularly shredded.

It����ap going to be Maye or Stafford. Give me Maye by a hair.

Who do you think is the worst opponent for the Broncos in the divisional round? Personally, I’d hate to see Houston. They’re scorching hot right now. I really don’t want to see them.

— Max, Colorado Springs

Good question and a totally fair place to land on it yourself. The Texans haven’t lost since the last time they played Denver. That����ap nine straight since early November. The Texans’ defense is ferocious. They have offensive weapons, too, though their production on that side of the ball has been hit and miss, particularly situationally. Houston is 23rd in the NFL on third down and 30th in the red zone.

I know I just got done saying Herbert isn’t an MVP candidate, but I’d put the Chargers at the top of the list of tough matchups.

Consider this: Nix was pressured just 27.7% of the time last year. Houston got to him 38% of his drop-backs. That was third-most in a game on the season.

The most: Week 3 at the Chargers (43.8%). Second-most: 40.6% Week 18 against, you guessed it, the Chargers and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. Khalil Mack didn’t play in either game. The Chargers sat OLB Tuli Tuipulotu (13 sacks) and S Derwin James — who made play after play in Week 3 — this past weekend.

And Herbert will be coming off a week’s rest.

There’s no such thing as an easy divisional round matchup, typically, but I agree with Post columnists Troy Renck and Sean Keeler that Pittsburgh looks like the most favorable matchup. After that, in order, let����ap go Houston, Buffalo and the Chargers

Is there a source to listen to a replay of the radio broadcast of Dave Logan’s Broncos gameday play-by-play?

— Mike, Arvada

The NFL doesn’t allow local radio broadcasters to repurpose full game replays, so unfortunately the answer is no. There are usually some clips floating around on the team’s social media and website.