The Denver Broncos won 14 games in the regular season last year, which was tied for the most in the league with the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. The Broncos ended up having a tiebreaker over the Patriots, so they earned the top seed in the AFC.
And it's not that the Broncos cannot again enjoy an insane season like last year, but it doesn't get easier, unfortunately. Having high-end success year-over-year only gets tougher. For example, the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs each went 15-2 in 2024, and in 2025, the two teams went 9-8 and 6-11, missing the playoffs entirely.
The Broncos, however, have the roster infrastructure to again enjoy a double-digit win season, which would be their third in a row. And when you look further at the team's schedule for 2026, it's clear that the NFL actually did Denver a major favor.
The Denver Broncos can get the toughest opponents out of the way first
At first glance, the team's schedule looks brutal at the beginning, opening up with Kansas City, Jacksonville, Los Angeles (N), San Francisco, Los Angeles (A), and Seattle.
Your guide to the 2026 season. 🗓️ pic.twitter.com/EGmWnfagOq
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) May 14, 2026
I'm not sure there is any team in the NFL who has a tougher stretch on their schedule for 2026 than the Broncos. However, having this tough stretch at the beginning of the season is much more doable at the end of the season.
There's an element of "let's just get this out of the way" at play here, and, furthermore, teams tend to be at their weakness at the beginning part of a given season. If the Broncos had to have this type of schedule, it's good that the team doesn't have a that gauntlet of a six-game stretch to end the regular season.
Sure, it's not necessarily ideal that the league gave them five games in a row against double-digit, playoff teams from 2025, but the Broncos went 14-3 themselves, and I would have to imagine that other teams in the league are breathing a massive sigh seeing the Broncos on their schedule.
The Broncos first six games could be a major test, though. If the team stumbles out of the gate and wins two or fewer games, they'll be in an unexpected hole to begin the season. However, being able to snag three or more of those games would give the team a major advantage, as the schedule in the middle and middle-end of the regular season gets a lot easier.
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