First six weeks will determine Denver Broncos 2026 season
· Yahoo Sports
When the Denver Broncos 2026 schedule dropped yesterday, the first thing I noticed was the brutal look to their first six weeks. Playoff team after playoff team and prime time. High pressure. Cinema. What the NFL wants every week, but for Denver every week.
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I noted this slate of six games to start the season as the “ugly” part of their 2026 schedule and for good reason. Five playoff teams plus the Kansas City Chiefs.
- Week 1, 9/14: Broncos at Chiefs (MNF)
- Week 2, 9/20: Jaguars at Broncos
- Week 3, 9/27: Rams at Broncos (SNF)
- Week 4, 10/4: Broncos at 49ers
- Week 5, 10/11: Broncos at Chargers
- Week 6, 10/15: Seahawks at Broncos (TNF)
The most winnable games here — if you can call them that — would be the Jacksonville Jaguars at home and the two AFC West division games. Denver matches up well against the Chiefs, but the Los Angeles Chargers match up well against Denver. And those are the more winnable games in my mind.
The NFC West was the strongest division in football last year and you have to figure they’ll continue to be playoff-caliber teams in 2026. I like that the Los Angeles Rams are in Denver, but I feel like they would match up well against Vance Joseph’s style of defense. The San Francisco 49ers are always tough, but they could have half their team on injured reserve by Week 4. Thursday Night Football is always a crapshoot and Bo Nix and the Broncos haven’t played well on TNF. And that was against the Chargers and Raiders, not the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
I’m having to play devil’s advocate here because my fan brain says they win any game. Worst case scenario is easily 1-5 or 2-4, because all of these teams are good and Denver could end up losing several one-score type games. They could also easily end up 5-1 or 4-2 based on that same logic. That’s probably why this stretch of games is scary. It just feels like their entire season could be determined by how they come out of this stretch of six games to start the season.
Do you agree? I think Mahonz will disagree with me based off his FEED post here. Maybe not though, since his worst case scenario is kind of in line of where I think Denver ends up at the Bye week. Three losses and well positioned for a late season run.