Broncos schedule: 3 things that would make slate more favorable

Avoid starting with divisional games

The AFC West will be quite challenging to navigate this year, and anyone who pays attention to the league can see that being the case. All four teams seem fairly loaded and ready to make a deep run in the playoffs but having to play each other twice each, makes things even more difficult.

All four of these teams will be able to make plenty of noise this season and to say that the Broncos are more talented than any of these teams, at least currently, would just be hopeful, wishful thinking.

The Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders all made huge moves this offseason, and you can make the argument that all three of those teams are Super Bowl contenders.

For the Broncos, who will be the only team in that division with a new quarterback, getting things put together may take some time. So if the schedule is released and two of the first three opponents of the season come from this division, that may not be what you want to see.

Teams need time to build continuity and jell together and it will be easier to do that against lesser opponents than these three top contenders. Remember, even Peyton Manning lost two of his first three games in Denver.

This is not a race that the Broncos want to fall behind in and if they were to lose two of their first three games of the season and have both of those losses be within the division, they could fall out of the race early.