The Denver Broncos are AFC West champions and are one game away from potentially clinching the top seed in the AFC, which would cap a heck of a three-year turnaround in the mile high city. To get there,
they will have played six of their 17 games against 2025 playoff teams. And those games don’t even include the two against the long-eliminated Kansas City Chiefs.
If we based this years’ schedule off of who were playoff teams last season, then they would have faced nine games against playoff teams. I shared that tidbit, because the 2026 schedule suggests the Broncos will face 10 games against playoff teams from this season. And no, that also does not include the long-eliminated Chiefs. The good news is, a couple of those teams won’t be playoff teams next year. The bad news is, the Broncos play one more road game over home game too.
Denver Broncos 2026 opponents
The Broncos will face a first-place schedule next season. There will be eight home games and nine road games in total. They also get the brutal NFC West that is far and away the best division in football this season with all three teams competing for the NFC one seed. Next season will be a real test for how far this team has come.
Denver Broncos 2026 home game schedule
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Buffalo Bills
- Miami Dolphins
- Los Angeles Rams
- Seattle Seahawks
- AFC South Champion (Jacksonville Jaguars or Houston Texans)
Denver Broncos 2026 away game schedule
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Las Vegas Raiders
- New England Patriots
- New York Jets
- Arizona Cardinals
- San Francisco 49ers
- AFC North Champion (Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens)
- NFC South Champion (Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Carolina Panthers)
We all assume the long-eliminated Chiefs will be back into contender form next season, but there are quite a few games on this schedule that look to be tough. The Bills, Rams, and 49ers games all look like they could be brutal matchups for the 2025 Broncos, but hopefully by 2026 they will have added a few more pieces on offense to take the pressure off Bo Nix with some balance in the run game.
If I had to predict the outcome here in a totally useless exercise, I’d cautiously say 4-2 in the division. The question then becomes how many of those big games at home and on the road does Denver come out on top in? Again, cautiously, I’ll go with splitting the tough home games with a 4-1 record outside of the division and a less-than-optimum road warrior outcome going 3-3 outside of the division for a final record prediction of 11-6.
11-6 is not bad and its not great, but with the ball bouncing Denver’s way in a few games that could easily swing to 13-4… or the other way, but we won’t put that pessimism in print!
What do you think of the Broncos’ schedule of opponents in 2026? Share in the comments section below!
