The Denver Broncos ate some humble pie in Week 1 of the 2026 season. Denver got absolutely crushed by Kansas City in a 31-10 beatdown at Arrowhead. The Broncos swept the Chiefs in 2025, but they were reminded that the AFC West division is still wide open in 2026. Especially when the Chiefs have a healthy Patrick Mahomes under center.

Denver was able to keep pace with Kansas City in the early stages of the game. But the Chiefs easily pulled away in the second half.

How worried should fans be after a tough start to the regular season? And where can the Broncos improve ahead of Week 2?

Here are the Broncos most to blame for the team's terrible performance against the Chiefs on Monday Night Football.

Sean Payton, Broncos look foolish to give Davis Webb play-calling duties after Week 1

Denver Broncos offensive pass game coordinator Davis Webb before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium.
Kyle Terada-Imagn Images.

Broncos fans are already calling for offensive coordinator Davis Webb to lose play-calling duties after Monday's brutal loss. It is certainly too early to make a big overreaction like that, but it is easy to see where fans are coming from.

Head coach Sean Payton entrusted Webb with play-calling duties, something that Payton has kept throughout his NFL career. The fact that Payton was giving up one of his biggest advantages suggested that Webb would be ready to go in Week 1. Unfortunately, the truth looks to be the complete opposite.

Denver finished the game with 176 total yards of offense. It was the worst offensive performance from Week 1, even worse than the Tennessee Titans who had 195 total yards of offense. Compare that to last season, where Denver averaged 342.6 total yards per game, which ranked 10th in the NFL.

It would be one thing if the Broncos had a lot of turnover on offense this offseason. But the personnel is virtually identical to last season. In fact, the situation is better because Denver traded for Jaylen Waddle before the 2026 NFL Draft.

The Chiefs deserve some credit for making life very uncomfortable for the Broncos on offense. That said, Denver needs to find some answers if they want to get back to the AFC Championship this season.

Offensive improvement, starting from a schematic standpoint, is an absolute must for Denver in Week 2.

Denver's offensive line could not create a clean pocket for Bo Nix

Staying on the offensive side of the ball, the trenches were a surprisingly huge problem in Week 1.

Denver is supposed to have one of the best offensive lines in the entire NFL. So what happened against Kansas City?

QB Bo Nix was constantly under pressure, only finishing 17-of-28 passing for 131 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Nix was sacked a total of four times.

It is quite surprising that Denver did not devote more resources to protecting Nix in the season opener. Nix is coming back from an ankle injury, which could single-handedly derail the season if reaggravated. That is on top of Davis Webb being a first-time play caller at offensive coordinator.

With those facts in mind, the Broncos should have designed a game plan to build a fortress around Nix. Instead, he was left out to dry and was hit on multiple occasions. It's no wonder the offense couldn't get anything rolling against the Chiefs.

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Kansas City did cook up a good plan of attack against Denver. They also got some huge contributors from players like R Mason Thomas, who immediately looked like a playmaker in his first ever NFL game.

Still, Broncos fans will want a lot more from their o-line in Week 2.

The Broncos played some sloppy defense to start the 2026 season

Denver Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto (42) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The Broncos also did not get a great performance from their defense. This shows that Denver essentially had a complete team failure instead of one or two players blowing the game.

It was surprising to see Kansas City push Denver around for a full 60 minutes. Remember, the Broncos only allowed 278.2 total yards per game last season, which ranked second in the NFL behind only the Texans.

Denver is rolling with mostly the same personnel as last season. They did lose John Franklin-Myers and Dre Greenlaw, but the rest of their defensive starters are still around.

So what went wrong?

One big issue was missed tackles. Sloppy tackling was a huge factor on Kenneth Walker III's 60-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The same can be said for Travis Kelce's 59-yard catch-and-run.

Both of those players might not have happened during the 2025 season. But they did on Monday, and it helped break the game open for Kansas City.

The Broncos also failed to get many sacks on Patrick Mahomes despite him coming off an ACL injury. Instead, the Chiefs made it a priority to protect Mahomes and get the ball out quickly to neutralize the pass rush.

Looking back at the last section, this is the type of game plan the Broncos should have used to protect Nix. Get the ball out quickly and don't give your quarterback time to get roughed up.

Hopefully the defense has more success against the Jaguars in Week 2.