The Denver Broncos already have a major game coming in Week 1. Playing at Kansas City is not an easy task, as it's a huge AFC West showdown right off the bat, and its comes against Patrick Mahomes, who is back from his ACL injury, and the Chiefs, a team that surely wants to get the bad taste from 2025 out of their mouths.
The Broncos were able to sweep Kansas City last year, and are currently on a three-game winning streak against a team they once struggled to beat, but the 2024 and 2025 seasons do not matter for 2026.
While 2025 is behind the team, there was a rather troubling trend that emerged from last year, and it ended up being a major regression from the 2024 campaign. Despite leading the NFL in sacks, the Broncos, overall, struggled to turn the ball over and didn't have as many strip-sacks as you think. Fortunately, Week 1 should give the Broncos a chance to reverse this trend.
Denver Broncos' Week 1 showdown can be great chance to reverse troubling trend from 2025
Yes, of the 68 sacks the Broncos had last year, the team only had two strip sacks, which feels almost impossible:
The more you think about it, the less sense it makes that the Broncos only had two strip-sacks all of last season (that they recovered)
— Sayre Bedinger (@SayreBedinger) August 19, 2026
68 sacks on the season, only two strips that resulted in turnovers. That, to me, is more outlier than their 1-score wins.
Not only did the Broncos struggle to generate turnovers off sacks, but the team overall struggled with turnovers. Denver had just 14 turnovers in 2025, which was tied for the 5th-lowest in the entire league, and it was tied for the lowest total of all playoff teams from a year ago.
The Broncos had just 10 interceptions on defense and four fumble recoveries. For reference, the Chicago Bears led the NFL with 23 interceptions last year, and the Minnesota Vikings led the way with 13 fumble recoveries.
Denver ended up being -3 in the turnover differential column, meaning they gave it away three more times than they generated a turnover. This -3 margin was the 2nd-worst total of all 2025 playoff teams.
For quick reference, the Broncos had 15 interceptions and 10 fumble recoveries in 2024, generating a total of 25 turnovers, which was 11 more than in 2025. With as frequently as the Broncos hit opposing quarterbacks last year, what we could see is a positive regression with generating turnovers.
The Broncos were simply among the worst teams in the league at taking the ball away, but have consistently been the best at hitting the QB, which does force bad throws and obviously gives them a bigger chance for those strip sacks.
Luckily, the Broncos are set to face off against what appears to be a rather subpar tackle duo against the Chiefs, as Kansas City won't have their stud left tackle, Josh Simmons, and instead are starting Kahlil Benson, and undrafted free agent.
Jaylon Moore likely gets the start at right tackle, but he started just six games last year. Ideally, the Broncos can begin reversing the ugly turnover trend from a year ago when Week 1 begins with Monday Night Football.
The Chiefs deploying a shaky offensive line with, perhaps, one of the worst tackle duos in the NFL can allow the Broncos to not only contain the run, but also generate pressure on Mahomes. What's also nice is that the Broncos interior defensive line led by Zach Allen and DJ Jones should be good enough for the team to generate some interior pressure.
If the defense does what they're able to do, the Chiefs offense struggles to move the ball, and Mahomes is pressured enough to put the ball in harm's way a couple of times, allowing the Broncos to generate some turnovers in the end.
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