The Denver Broncos are back home. They are set to host the Cincinnati Bengals on their first primetime game of the season, specifically on Monday Night Football. Denver is 1-2 and cannot afford to lose a third game in a row.
They will play against a Jake Browning-led Bengals team at Empower Field at Mile High in the second game of a Week 4 Monday Night Football doubleheader. The first game of the day will be the Jets at the Dolphins, and then the Bengals will play the Broncos to close out the Week.
The Broncos will face their fourth AFC opponent, having hosted the Tennessee Titans in Week 1 and then playing on the road against the Colts and Chargers in Weeks 2 and 3, respectively. This will be Denver's second home game of the 2025-26 season. Conference games are very important because they can be a tiebreaker not only for seeding but also for draft order once the season ends.
Former Broncos top pick Noah Fant won't get a chance to play his old team
Sean Payton, Bo Nix, and the Denver Broncos will be hosting an injured Cincinnati Bengals team, as they will be without their star quarterback Joe Burrow, who suffered a foot injury in Week 2. Despite Burrow being out, the Bengals have a 2-1 win-loss record. Their only loss came in fashion during their Week 3 matchup on the road against the Minnesota Vikings. They lost by a 48-10 score in Jake Browning's first start of the season. Cincy will have back-to-back road games against very tough defenses without their starting quarterback; the Broncos must take advantage.
Denver travelled to Cincinnati in the second-to-last game of last year's season. It was a game that kept the Bengals alive in the playoff race. Cincy defeated the Broncos in overtime in a match where Bo Nix had a game-tying touchdown to Marvin Mims with less than 5 seconds left to play, and Tee Higgins destroyed cornerback Riley Moss throughout the entire game.
On Monday, it will be a different game as it is still early in the season. The Bengals will be without their starting quarterback, but still, they have solid weapons, and anything can happen. Speaking of weapons, Cincinnati ruled out the former Broncos tight end and first-round draft pick, Noah Fant, for the Monday Night showdown due to a concussion. Fant was a part of Russell Wilson's trade back in 2022, was released earlier in the year, and signed a one-year deal with the Bengals.
Fant was selected 20th overall by Denver in the 2019 NFL Draft. He spent three seasons with the Broncos before getting traded to Seattle, and had 1905 yards plus 10 touchdowns in orange and blue. The former Iowa Hawkeye will not have the chance to face the team that drafted him, as he suffered a concussion.
Fant has played the Broncos twice with Seattle since leaving Denver and has only had 5 receptions for 27 yards in those two games. He will have to wait for a true revenge game, as he was not a key factor in the Seattle games last season and in 2022. Cincinnati also ruled out defensive lineman Shemar Stewart, their first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, due to an ankle injury for Monday Night's showdown.