The Denver Broncos could not have gotten more manhandled by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL Season. The Broncos looked flat, poorly coached, and just in way over their heads here. Fortunately, Week 1 in the NFL is often a liar, and we have seen that play out with the Broncos before.
The Broncos still have 16 games left and a ton of time to correct the issues that played out on the field against the Chiefs. While this loss does leave a bad taste in the mouths of fans, there isn't any reason why this can't improve in the following weeks.
And when you take a somewhat deeper look into the Broncos during the Sean Payton era, bouncing back after a slow start is precisely what this team has done time and time again.
The Denver Broncos have started slow before and have improved significantly in the following weeks
Even dating back to his time with the New Orleans Saints, Payton-coached teams just... start out slow for some reason. When he took over as the Broncos' head coach back during the 2023 NFL Season, the Broncos began the year 0-3 before registering their first win, and limped out to a 1-5 start.
Despite that slow start, the Broncos finished 7-4 the rest of the way and managed to win eight games, clearly showing improvement after the first month and a half. In the 2024 NFL Season, the first of the Bo Nix era, the Broncos were off to a very ugly 0-2 start, and all the team did after that was go 10-5 in their final 15 games, making the playoffs with a 10-7 record.
And even in the 2025 season, the Broncos began the year 1-0 before losing two in a row, dropping to 1-2. After that, all the Broncos did was win 11 games in a row. While losing to the Chiefs in blowout fashion honestly feels like the worst-possible outcome of any game this year, it will get better, as the past proves it.
The 2017 Saints, among other teams, began the year 0-2 but finished 11-5 and won the NFC South. Overall, the Broncos do have a lot to clean up, as the tackling could not have been more horrific, and the team just did not seem to get off the plane at all, but this is, to a degree, par for the course.
The Broncos will improve and stack some wins in the near future.
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