The Denver Broncos’ 2026 schedule has already drawn plenty of groans, and for good reason. The opening stretch looks nasty, especially the first six weeks, and the first eight games may be the hardest run any team faces this season.
But there’s a flip side, and Warren Sharp of Sharp Football laid it out on X this week as Broncos training camp nears: Denver’s back half is as friendly as it gets. If the Broncos survive the early grind, they’ll turn around and face the NFL’s easiest second-half schedule based on opponents’ expected wins.
That matters because the two biggest hurdles after Week 8 both come in Denver. The Buffalo Bills visit in Week 16, and the Los Angeles Chargers come to town in Week 18. Late in the year, that kind of home-field setup can loom large.
The Broncos’ toughest road test on paper comes in Week 17 against the New England Patriots, and that trip comes with a two-day rest edge if the game is played on Sunday. That’s a small but real advantage in a stretch that already looks far more manageable than what Denver gets early.
The catch is what comes right before it. Denver plays the Bills on Christmas Day, which falls on a Friday, only five days after a road game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders may not inspire much fear right now, but divisional games have a way of tightening up fast.
Denver saw that last season in Week 10, when the Broncos hosted the Raiders on Thursday Night Football and had to grind through a physical game that went down to the wire before Denver pulled it out. The same lesson showed up against the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, too.
Even without their starting quarterbacks, those games were still tough, and Denver won both. In the AFC West, nothing comes easy.
That’s why the first half of the schedule looms so large. If Denver can get through that opening gauntlet at .500 or better, the Broncos will be in position to make the second half count and stay in the mix for the division and AFC playoff seeding. Even if they reach Week 9 at 4-4 or 3-5, the path to the division still looks live.
A No. 1 seed and a first-round bye would be a tall order, but the division is there for the taking. The Raiders, Chiefs, and Chargers all have to deal with the AFC East and NFC West, just like Denver does, and that matters because the AFC East produced five playoff teams last season. That kind of shared burden helps level the field.
Denver does have a tougher first-place schedule than Kansas City and Los Angeles, though not by a huge margin. The AFC West is staring at a demanding season all the way around.
The early schedule is loaded with tests: the Chiefs twice, plus the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, and Chargers in the first eight weeks. The Broncos do get one breather in Week 7 with a road game against the Arizona Cardinals, but otherwise they’ll have to bring their best every week just to stay afloat.
That’s the point of all this. The Broncos may take some punches early, but they also have the roster to handle them - one of the NFL’s best, a young franchise quarterback who thrives in clutch moments, and an experienced coaching staff led by a former Super Bowl winner.
So the first eight games become the whole story. If Denver is going to prove it belongs among the league’s true contenders, it has to survive the opening stretch and cash in once the schedule softens.
The question isn’t whether the path gets easier. It’s how many wins the Broncos can bank before it does.
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Nathaniel Hackett Had Another Awkward Cardinals Camp Moment
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Broncos Fans Are Suddenly Watching Caleb Lohner Much More Closely
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Lohner also enters training camp with a little catching up to do after missing part of the offseason while recovering from a procedure, but he is expected to be back in the mix when the competition heats up. The Broncos have some stability at tight end already, which makes the battle for the remaining spots a tricky one, but it also gives a player like Lohner a clear path if the progress Payton has seen carries over once the pads come on. [Read more 🡒]