All the good vibes the Denver Broncos had built up over the offseason — the acquisition of Jaylen Waddle, Bo Nix’s on-schedule return from the ankle surgery that cut his 2025 campaign short — wound up lasting less than two quarters of regular-season football. That’s how long it took for the team’s high-profile season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs to turn into a hot mess, a total system failure for which just about everybody can take at least some responsibility.
Still, some weak links stood out more than others. And now a team that thought of itself as an inner-circle title contender entering the year has some serious questions to answer.
OC Davis Webb
Suffice to say that was not the first impression Webb had in mind. Sean Payton’s decision to hand over play-calling duties after a 14-3 season — to a first-timer, no less — was curious at the time, and it look potentially disastrous now. Forget digging into schematics; the Broncos had a hard time just getting their operation together on Monday night, consistently rushing against the play clock and at one point taking a brutal delay of game penalty.
That was supposed to be one of the benefits to handing Webb the keys, condensing what can be a long-winded Payton verbiage. Instead, things only got sloppier, and without the benefit of Payton’s Hall of Fame acumen to try and find answers against a rabid Chiefs defense. There will likely be better days ahead, but man, this was an ugly debut.
Head coach Sean Payton
And yet, it’s hard not to put at least some responsibility at Payton’s feet, right? After all, he was the one who decided that Webb was important enough to take such a gamble on rather than letting him leave for a promotion elsewhere. It’s unfair to render a final judgment after just one game, sure. That said, Denver’s offense was downright ugly in every facet of the game, and they were underprepared and outcoached. That falls on the head man, ultimately.
LB Alex Singleton
But enough about the offense. The really jarring thing was just how vulnerable this previously ferocious Denver defense looked — particularly at the second level, where Singleton looked one (maybe even two) step slow and led a parade of missed tackles that resulted in big gains for Kansas City.
He began to stick out as a liability for this Broncos team last year, and yet they decided to retain his services in free agency anyway. That looks like an indefensible decision right now. Then again, running mate Justin Strnad wasn’t much better, nor was the secondary when it came to getting ball carriers on the ground and preventing 10-yard plays from becoming 40-yard plays. Speaking of which …
DB Riley Moss
So much for that training camp hype, huh? This was supposed to be the year that Moss finally got his revenge on the haters and made teams pay for trying to pick on him whlie avoiding Pat Surtain II. Instead, he was just as inconsistent as always, flashing real potential on some reps while making fatal mistakes in others — like when he whiffed on a tackle attempt that allowed Rashee Rice to get all the way to the end zone for the Chiefs’ second touchdown of the night on Monday.
The Broncos don’t really have any choice but to ride it out with Moss moving forward. But this was not an auspicious start to what was supposed to be a breakout year.
RT Mike McGlinchey
Really, if you wanted to swap in just about any member of Denver’s vaunted offensive line, I wouldn’t blame you. I’m just picking on McGlinchey here because he’s supposed to be an anchor on the right side, and instead he repeatedly got beat by Kansas City rookie R Mason Thomas. With a first-time play-caller and a quarterback coming back from injury, the Broncos needed its line to be the rock they could lean on. Instead, Chiefs were living in the backfield all night long, raising questions about whether this unit is getting a little long in the tooth.
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