Biggest worry each AFC West rival presents for Broncos in 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Denver Broncos were champions of the AFC West in 2025, knocking the Kansas City Chiefs off a perch they sat on for nearly a decade. But repeating as division winners in 2026 will be even more difficult.
Before the Broncos can discuss getting to and winning Super Bowl LXI, they will have to first focus on winning the division again in order to get a favorable seed in the playoffs. All three teams in the division will now be the hunters and each of them presents a different obstacle for the Broncos to overcome.
Here, we will look at what the Broncos should be most worried about when it comes to each of their division rivals this coming season.
Broncos’ biggest worries in 2026 for each AFC West opponent
Las Vegas Raiders
Biggest offseason acquisition: QB Fernando Mendoza
Biggest worry in 2026: That Mendoza is as good as advertised
Few expect that the Raiders will compete in 2026, but it’s difficult to argue that they look much better than they did when the season ended and that they finally look like a team that knows what it’s doing.
Adding Klint Kubiak from the Super Bowl champion Seahawks was a great move and then landing Fernando Mendoza, the top quarterback prospect in some time, could finally start to open the door to the team going up instead of continually going down.
Mendoza starred at Indiana last year, leading the Hoosiers to the national championship. He was terrific in doing so and if he can bring that level of leadership both on and off the field to Vegas, the Broncos have something to contend with.
Los Angeles Chargers
Biggest offseason acquisition: TE David Njoku
Biggest worry in 2026: New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel
The Chargers were mostly quiet in free agency and they lost defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who became the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. But the hiring of Mike McDaniel to be the new offensive coordinator is a move that can make the Chargers very dangerous.
The Chargers became fairly pedestrian on offense under Greg Roman, but the addition of McDaniel will speed the offense up and give it a chance to be much more dynamic. If anyone can unlock the rest of Justin Herbert’s remaining potential, it might be him.
McDaniel was the head coach of the Dolphins team that posted 70 points on the Broncos in 2023 in a game no Broncos fan will ever forget.
Kansas City Chiefs
Biggest offseason acquisition: RB Kenneth Walker
Biggest worry in 2026: Revenge of the Chiefs
It’s still Patrick Mahomes. It’s still Andy Reid. This is still the Chiefs.
Mahomes will have to prove that he can recover from tearing his ACL last December, but there should be little doubt that he can. He will be joined by Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker on an offense that should still be quite potent.
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The Chiefs were humbled last season. They were knocked from their throne and they have had to listen to critics say that their dynasty is over for months. They will be hungry to get that all back this season and a team that still has the best coach and still has the best quarterback, when healthy, will not be a lot of fun to play under those circumstances.
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