The Broncos have spent the first half of the 2026 season looking a lot like a team that knows exactly who it is. Denver is 6-2 for the second year in a row, has won four straight, and is 6-1 over its last seven games after opening with a Week 1 loss. At this point, the idea that the Broncos could keep rolling doesn’t feel far-fetched at all.
There’s even a path, however wild it might sound, to another 11-game winning streak with the way the schedule sets up. Through eight games, the picture is pretty clear: some Broncos have helped drive this run, while others have dragged their feet.
Jonah Coleman has been one of the clearest bright spots. Denver looks different when he’s on the field, and that’s true even with the missed time.
He has played four NFL games, sat out four on injured reserve, and didn’t touch the ball in Week 1, so his impact really comes from essentially three games of work. In that stretch, he has 134 rushing yards and 97 receiving yards, good for 5.9 yards per touch.
Coleman has become the most complete back on the roster, and if his current pace held over 17 games, he’d finish with 982 scrimmage yards and nine touchdowns. Missing four games with the ankle injury clearly mattered, because the Broncos have already seen how much he changes the offense.
Malcolm Roach has also made his mark in a big way. He has already set or matched career highs in tackles for loss and quarterback hits, and he’s on pace for 7 sacks, 11 tackles for loss and 26 QB hits.
That’s not just solid production - that’s the kind of disruption teams usually expect from a top edge rusher, not an interior lineman. Roach has filled the role of primary replacement for John Franklin-Myers and done it with force in both the pass rush and the run game.
Sean Payton belongs on the winners list too. He has added six more wins to his career total, including the playoffs, bringing him to 190 regular-season wins and 10 playoff wins.
That makes him the sixth-fastest head coach in NFL history to reach 200 wins. The Broncos also honored the milestone after the game, with owner and CEO Greg Penner handing Payton a game ball for his 200th win.
Since the start of 2024, Denver has won 30 regular-season games and is on pace to finish 13-4 this year. Payton is still operating at a high level.
And then there’s the team’s clutch gene, which somehow still hasn’t gone anywhere. The Broncos were living on late-game heroics a year ago, and plenty of people figured that kind of magic would fade in 2026.
It hasn’t. Denver has already erased multiple double-digit second-half deficits this season and has picked up right where it left off.
For anyone who doubted that could continue - especially with a roster that mostly returned intact and is getting older - the answer so far has been pretty simple. It’s coaching, and it’s still showing up when the game gets tight.
On the other side of the ledger, Davis Webb has taken a hit. He handled play-calling duties for four games before Payton took that responsibility back, and the offense was almost invisible with Webb in charge. He remains a valued part of the staff, but that stretch makes him one of the first-half losers.
J.K. Dobbins has also slipped.
He’s averaging only 3.3 yards per carry and was out-snapped by Coleman in Week 8. Dobbins had just one snap in the second half of that game, which says plenty about where things stand.
After averaging 5.0 yards per carry last season, he simply hasn’t looked like the same player. Denver brought him back on a two-year deal this offseason, but with the team’s reported interest in Jonathan Taylor, it’s fair to wonder how much Dobbins will matter moving forward.
Ben Powers hasn’t helped the offensive line hold up, either. He’s been getting beaten regularly, and his 56.9 overall PFF grade ranks 51st out of 75 qualified guards.
Denver restructured the final year of his contract this offseason, extended Alex Palczewski and drafted Kage Casey, which points to life after Powers once 2026 ends. He also dealt with foot and bicep injuries last year, so there’s at least the possibility he’s not fully right physically.
Whatever the reason, his play has looked like that of a player in decline.
Mike McGlinchey rounds out the losers. He hasn’t been sturdy in protection this season, and his 60.4 PFF grade ranks 53rd out of 69 qualified tackles.
Some of the batted passes Bo Nix dealt with in Week 8 came after McGlinchey was driven back into the quarterback’s lap by a Kansas City Chiefs defender. McGlinchey has usually been a dependable piece for Denver, but his fourth year with the team has been forgettable.
The Broncos’ inability to run the ball consistently also traces back to the offensive line’s regression outside of Garett Bolles and Quinn Meinerz, and Powers and McGlinchey have been the shakier parts of that group.
Nix lands in the middle. The numbers don’t leap off the page, but he leads the NFL in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives.
He’s also starting to look more comfortable using his legs again, highlighted by a 62-yard touchdown run against Arizona and several strong runs in Week 8. There’s a good chance he keeps settling in as the season goes on, especially with the ankle injury he was rehabbing through much of the offseason and a softer schedule ahead.
Still, he hasn’t looked fully like himself until recently, so he doesn’t quite fit cleanly into either camp. He’s guiding one of the league’s best teams, but he’s also left some plays on the field.
In Other News...
Chiefs Meltdown Added Even More To Denvers First-Place Win
The Broncos Week 8 win over Kansas City already carried plenty of weight, but the ripple effects made it feel even bigger in Denver. A 28-24 victory pushed the Broncos to 6-2 and dropped the Chiefs to 5-2, flipping the AFC West standings and giving Denver a first-place spot it had been chasing.
Kansas Citys frustration spilled well beyond the field after the game, with Brittany Mahomes taking to Instagram Stories to criticize a late penalty that wiped out a potential turning point. For the Broncos, it was the kind of divisional win that does more than add a mark in the standings, because it also leaves the rival most likely to challenge them dealing with the fallout. [Read more 🡒]
Mahomes Postgame Drama Briefly Took Attention From Denvers Biggest Win
The Broncos biggest win of the season came with some extra postgame noise after Kansas Citys second straight loss turned into a heated finish. The Chiefs fell to 5-2 after a late false start penalty wiped out their chance to win, and Patrick Mahomes spent much of his postgame availability venting about the officiating after throwing for 321 yards and three touchdowns on 30 completions.
A viral clip then briefly shifted attention to a supposed handshake snub involving Mahomes and Bo Nix, but the moment did not match what actually happened on the field. CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson clarified that the quarterbacks had a long conversation after the game and showed each other respect, a small but telling detail after a night that had already delivered plenty of drama for Denver to enjoy. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos Win Over Chiefs Raised A Bigger J.K. Dobbins Question
The Broncos Week 8 win over the Chiefs gave the offense a jolt, and Jonah Coleman was a big part of it with 104 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. It was the kind of performance that can change the tone around a backfield, especially in a game with that much weight attached to it, because Denver found production when it mattered most and showed it has more than one option to lean on.
J.K. Dobbins, meanwhile, was left with a much smaller footprint in the game plan, which only sharpened the questions about how the Broncos want to divide the work going forward. With the backfield hierarchy already worth watching, the possibility of Denver exploring another move at the position adds another layer to a situation that suddenly feels less settled than it did before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]