The Denver Broncos won the AFC West with room to spare in 2025, but that doesn't mean the team will be able to cruise to the division title in 2026. With the Los Angeles Chargers clearly a good team, and the Kansas City Chiefs still existing, the Broncos will have to fend-off two worthy teams this coming season.
The Chiefs, specifically, took a very clear approach in the 2026 NFL Draft, using an overwhelming majority of their capital on the defensive side of the ball, which tells you the front office knows they had a personnel issue.
And to give the front office credit here, the Chiefs did get four potential starters with their first four picks, proving quickly that the Broncos may have a new problem on their hands in the quest to repeat as division champions in 2026.
The Chiefs might make life harder for the Denver Broncos going forward
The Chiefs made seven picks in the NFL Draft, and the first four were all on the defensive side of the ball:
Round 1: Mansoor Delane, CB, LSU
Round 1: Peter Woods, DT, Clemson
Round 2: R Mason Thomas, EDGE, Oklahoma
Round 4: Jadon Canady, CB, Oregon
All four of the Chiefs top selections went to Steve Spagnuolo's side of the ball. Mansoor Delane and Peter Woods are day one starters. Delane is a polished cornerback prospect, and Woods is a schematically-versatile defensive tackle.
Both players satisfied huge roster needs as well. The Chiefs lost Jaylen Watson to the Los Angeles Rams and traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams, so that secondary desperately needed a boost. Woods helps bring some juice to the defensive line, as one was a one-man show with Chris Jones these last couple of seasons.
R Mason Thomas and Jadon Canady are definitely more of an average starter caliber, but Canady is going to thrive in the slot, and Thomas does have an explosive pass-rush package, so he could be a rotational rusher on third downs.
But the broader thing here is that the Chiefs added significant talent to a unit that needed it. While the front office hasn't exactly drafted well in recent years, which is why the roster is in the position it's in, the Chiefs could also have brought in a solid class. Prior years' classes don't mean that the future can't be bright.
And if Patrick Mahomes is back on the field for Week 1, the Broncos may be looking at a Chiefs team a lot closer to being a double-digit win team than the six wins they finished with. And despite sweeping the Chiefs in 2025, the Broncos were in dogfights both games.
Yes, Kansas City finished with a losing record and missed the playoffs, but divisional games are typically ultra-close in today's NFL. Denver does have a massive roster advantage and are surely more likely to win the division, but the Chiefs did clearly take some notable steps in the right direction.
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