What was that?
If Monday Night Football in Kansas City were the Fourth of July, then the Denver Broncos were the biggest firecracker in the bag… with a soaking wet fuse.
A dud.
After an offseason that couldn’t end soon enough – seven months filled with woulda, coulda and “just you wait” expectations – the 2026 Denver Broncos didn’t exactly kick things off with a bang.
More like a thud.
An opening-night loss at Arrowhead is forgivable, but the 31-10 drubbing looked nothing like anything we expected. A good ol’ fashioned butt-kicking has a tendency to have everyone involved scratching their heads and asking, “What just happened?”
The word more important than what, however, is who.
Who are these guys?
Every great team has an identity. Last season’s Broncos, a team that was one ankle and a blinding snowstorm away from being undeniably great, was defined by its incredible defense. Last night’s defense was unrecognizable.
Simply put, the Broncos’ great defense couldn’t tackle. In total, the Orange Mush missed 28 tackles.
Twenty. Eight.
If that number isn’t significant enough, consider that all those misses resulted in 247 more yards. On the night, the Chiefs only totaled 392. In September of 2023, the Broncos gave up 70 points to the Miami Dolphins. In that game, Denver missed 25% of their tackles.against the Chiefs last night, they whiffed 29.8% of the time.
That’s bad news for a team led by defense. The good news is that the NFL’s best defense of a year ago is virtually the same. The Broncos’ “run it back” philosophy over the offseason made sense – especially on defense. Blame Sean Payton’s approach to the preseason, a lack of padded practices at camp or the humidity in K.C., but the truth – most likely – is that Monday night was a fluke. The Broncos still have a solid defense.
That same “run it back philosophy” returned a smart, veteran team across the entire roster. Against the Chiefs, the Broncos made rookie mistakes.
Bad tackling, bad snaps… bad penalties.
Denver had seven penalties for 52 yards, but more importantly, their infractions came at the worst times – a holding penalty inside the 10 when a touchdown would have made it a seven-point game, a delay of game that turned 3rd and short into 3rd and long, and so on.
Bo Nix, known for his ability to avoid negative plays, threw one interception, lost one fumble and nearly lost another had it not been for the cleat of a Chief barely touching the sideline. Nix was sacked four times; last season he was bagged 22 times in total.
That’s not who Nix is either.
If there was part of the Broncos’ identity they wanted to change, it was on the offensive side of the ball.
They needed to improve their run-pass balance. They needed the communication from coordinator to quarterback to be better, more efficient. They needed to get their best playmakers the ball more often. They needed more explosive plays. They needed to start faster.
They handed play calling duties over to Davis Webb, and none of those things changed.
Payton largely bit his tongue.
“I don’t know if that feeling is any different whether you’re calling (the plays) or not,” the coach said after the game.
The quarterback didn’t pin anything on Webb, either. Nix called Webb “a pro” in the headset; he wisely pinned the flop on execution, the Jimmies and Joes instead of the Xs and Os.
Who are these guys? After just one game in Kansas City, let’s hope it’s not “them.”
If there’s an identity Broncos fans might want to cling tightly to on a dreary Tuesday in Denver, it’s that Sean Payton’s Broncos have always started off poorly. Yet, they’ve bounced back every season. Heck, last year’s 14-3 effort started off at 1-2.
Let’s hope that’s who they are.
Otherwise, the Broncos are already in the midst of an identity crisis.
