You could hear the hand-wringing from here to L.A. “The NFL is conspiring against the Denver Broncos! Their 2026 schedule is unfair!”

It makes for great talk show fodder, but in reality, none of us have the faintest idea how difficult or how easy next fall’s Broncos’ schedule will or won’t be.

We need to keep this in mind: The 14 teams that made the playoffs last year aren’t going to be the 14 that make it this year. Just ask the New England Patriots. Or the Kansas City Chiefs. So when they write that the Broncos play “five of last year’s playoff teams in the first six weeks,” it may sound scary, until you realize that history says two or perhaps even three of those five won’t be playoff teams this season.

Playing the NFL’s “first place” schedule typically means your list of opponents will be tougher than that of the teams in your division that finished behind you. Fine. But when you’re projecting in May what teams are going to be good in September you’re just taking an educated guess, and nothing more. In the ever-changing NFL, teams go from bad to good with regularity, and from good to bad just as often. Some organizations are built to sustain, some aren’t.

Guesses about how good the Chiefs will be are nothing more than that, especially given the health status of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He’s coming off ACL surgery and will only be roughly nine months removed from said procedure. Given that… and the fact that the Chiefs’ stars of the recent past are all getting older and slowing down, how can anyone be 100% certain that KC will even be a contender next season? Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. No guarantees. It’s far from certain that the Broncos will be facing the same ‘ol, big bad Chiefs on the opening Monday night in September.

Is Jacksonville known for sustained success and for having a contending team year-in and year-out? Is Carolina? For that matter, are the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks known for their consistency, year after year? Before last season, they last won the NFC West in 2020… and then proceeded to go 7-10 in 2021. Then they won the division last season. Do we automatically decide they’re going to win again in 2026?

How about the Rams? They’re an injury to their oft-injured QB away from being middling. The San Francisco 49ers seem to always be hurt. Key injuries and the likelihood of unpredictable subpar play mean it’s the same with almost all of the “beasts” on Denver’s slate… and for the Broncos, as well, for that matter.

The NFL’s schedule-makers didn’t force the Broncos to travel out of the country this season, nor do they have back-to-back East Coast games (which they’ve handled well recently, but not historically.) They still play their division foes twice and get to play regularly bad teams like the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Jets.

The schedule is just fine (and fair), thank you.

All we know for certain is that we don’t really know what to expect when the first kickoff arrives. And that includes what kind of team the Broncos are going to have. Picking a won-loss record for the predominantly orange prior to watching any practices or preseason games is like throwing darts blindfolded.

On the plus side is the addition of one dynamic wide receiver and a talented rookie running back. On the downside are the injury concerns and questions that surround Broncos franchise quarterback Bo Nix. So there’s that, too.

Add it all up, and the fact of the matter is that opinions being spouted about the difficulty of the schedule around here in May simply don’t matter.