Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos 2025 Schedule Sets Table For AFC West CONQUEST

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

The Denver Broncos 2025 NFL schedule has been revealed. The Broncos will play in four primetime games, including matchups against the Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders, and the Cincinnati Bengals. How does the schedule shape up for Bo Nix and Sean Payton as they look to take the throne in the AFC West. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Denver Broncos 2025 schedule is out, and the team has a great opportunity to take claim of the AFC West. We'll tell you how they can do that and much more on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Broncos country? It is the Broncos schedule reveal here on the Lockdown Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast network, where you know what is your team?

every day for all your Broncos news, content, coverage, analysis, and more. You get it every single day all year long here. Wherever you get your podcasts are available on YouTube, a special shout-out to all the every dares out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in, making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so, you make the show exactly what it is here. I'm your host as always Cody Rourke, Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports. And I'm Sarah Bedinger's site expert, predominantly orange.com.

And on today's show, we're going to go through the Broncos 2025. NFL schedule. We're going to dive deeper into the more important pieces of it. Obviously, looking at where the Broncos are at. When you look at the schedule, how they start, how they finish. We know the Christmas Day games. You're going to go and get all that here on today's episode of the show. We're also going to dive into some of the deeper narratives surrounding this schedule reveal, which I felt like Sarah initially, it didn't make sense.

I understand the mutton busting dynamic to it. I just wasn't necessarily a big fan of it in terms of how they did the reveal versus what we see some other teams do. But you know what? The Broncos schedule, we saw some leaks tore a couple hours before everything happened. And it kind of played out the way that we kind of thought it was going to. Yeah, I think it did.

And you know what? It's really favorable for the Denver Broncos. They open up with the Tennessee Titans. What more could you really ask for, right? Early in the season, week one, you get to play at home. You don't have to be in prime time. You don't have to be on Sunday night football. None of that stuff.

You get to open up at home in your. favorite time window against a rookie quarterback with a top defense, right? And that's what I think the Broncos getting those matchups right out the gates. The Tennessee Titans week one, and they play the Indianapolis Colts week two, the Los Angeles Chargers in week three. I think the first three weeks of this season, Cody, they are, they're not going to necessarily define the season. It's too early to say they'll define the season. I think it's going to provide a really, really nice sort of, it's sort of a nice kind of push into the year from that for of Denver Broncos right from the schedule makers because they ain't playing the eagles and the

bangles and all these high flying high octane offenses right out of the gates they're playing some teams that I think would you say realistically whatever that means to everybody is a stretch of games that the Broncos can start very well in 2025 well let's talk about the number of prime time games that Denver's going to be getting and there's quite a bit of I mean a handful of them four overall five if you consider the London game as part of the equation there but I think primarily you look at the biggest one early on in the season. It's going to be week four. You get to play Joe Burrow in the Cincinnati Bengals,

a high-octane offense that we know could put up 40 plus points with no problem. They're facing a revamped Broncos defense, though, in comparison from the first time that these guys met last year. And our first matchup with Joe Burrow versus Bo Nicks were Bo Nix dueled with Joe Burrow and that Bengals team. And always go back. It went for two points at the end of that game there. but you know what, woulda, coulda, shoulda. I like the fact that Denver's featured on Monday night football, Sunday night football, Thursday night football twice.

You know, they're going to play the Las Vegas Raiders week number 10, a home Thursday night football game. But then they have to play the Kansas City cheese, as we know, on Christmas Day Thursday night football as well. So you have that short turnaround twice this upcoming season. You know what, Cody, you and I, we're going to get to spend Christmas together. I'll bring the prime rib this year, you know, I'll go cook. I'll go get a, you know, something good.

But no, I honestly, it's, is it great having a Christmas day game from a standpoint of, hey, you're, you're going to be, you know, working on Christmas if you're the Denver Broncos, right? No, it's not necessarily great, but I think it's a great sign of respect from the NFL after last year. The Broncos were left out of all this stuff. Like the NFL didn't, they didn't even put the Russell Wilson game in prime time, right? We thought that was, if any game on last year's schedule was going to be in prime time, we thought it would be the game against Russ and the Steelers, but the NFL clearly disagreed and thought the Broncos,

they agreed more with like the folks at PFF who were saying, hey, the Broncos had the worst record or worst roster in the NFL. Now this year, you're seeing a complete change in the tide and respect because the NFL on Christmas Day, Cody, the Netflix games alone last year, I think had 30 million viewers per game. So you're talking about one of the biggest cash cows for the league, plus the Kansas City Chiefs. It's a huge sign of respect here, the Denver Broncos,

what they did last year, like the NFL is buying that that is something that's going to be sustainable for them. Well, and look, I think people want to see the Broncos on TV. I mean, you got to see them against a team in Cincinnati that's got Joe Burrell. You know, you look at big names. You got that. The Raiders game, I mean, not necessarily. Maybe the biggest name there is Max Crosby, Pete Carroll.

Obviously, Gino Smith stepping in a quarterback for them. Week 13, coming off of Denver's by week. I love the fact that they're going to open up. They're going to be playing against Jaden Daniels and the Washington commanders on the road. Now, granted, in this situation, both the commanders and the Broncos will be coming off of their by week here at this juncture. So both teams are going to be well rested at this point. We get a first look at Bo Nix versus Jaden Daniels, which look, I know a lot of the narratives going into that game. Everyone's going to be talking about Jaden Daniels.

But Bo Nicks deserved to be in that conversation last year as much as Jaden Daniels was. I mean, you would have thought that Jaden Daniels had more passing touchdowns, had more. overall touchdowns than Bo Nix did. That actually wasn't the case. Bo Nix led the category for every rookie, especially in that category. And he also surpassed Baker-Mayfield for second all-time for most touchdowns by a rookie in a rookie season, just a couple behind Justin Herbert from his rookie year. So the fact that Bo Nix wasn't talked about as much in comparison to Jaden Daniels, that

doesn't sit well with me. But on the national stage, Bo Nix has an opportunity to go out there and throw some haymakers and the Broncos, I think Denver can take advantage. I'm excited to see how their defense are going to match up against the commanders. But I do feel like this might be the year. We see the commander's defense take a step backwards. And there's a lot of people inside that division, too, that also think the same thing. Yeah, that's a team that definitely, when you talk about the Broncos last year being a year ahead of schedule,

how about the commanders being a year or two ahead of schedule? Because they had a new GM, they had a new head coach, you got a new quarterback. You completely overhauled the roster. So that's a team that similar to the Houston Texans last year, Cody, where we saw them, they still played well. They were still tough, but it wasn't like they were out there scoring 30 a game, right? I think that the commanders, I could see them being similar this year. Although, I mean, Dayton Daniels, the dude's a baller.

So you never know. Maybe he's going to skip the sophomore slump and just go straight to being an MVP candidate like he was at times last season. But the Denver Broncos get an opportunity to play against him in. primetime and they also get the opportunity to go to London. I had read something, Cody, that the Colts actually had the Broncos in a protected list of teams that they did not want to play in Berlin. So we know the Broncos wanted to play in Berlin against the Colts and be part of that

history making that that did not happen, obviously. The Broncos are playing the Jets in London and that'll be a 730 a.m. Cody, 7.30 a.m. Mountain time kickoff. I am here for it. I love the early game when the Broncos played the Jaguars. That was a lot of fun. So I'm excited about this schedule overall. When you talk about those primetime matchups or I guess stand alone,

if you want to get technical about it, the Broncos have an opportunity here to do some stuff against some good teams. Like we're talking about the Bengals, the chiefs, the commanders, and not the Jets necessarily, but a division game against the Raiders, you get an opportunity against these teams to really prove like last year was not a fluke. And teams and pundits and fans are all going to be thinking last year was a fluke for the Denver Broncos. They still are not buying Bo Nicks.

They're not buying stock in Sean Payton. People will always hate that guy for whatever reason. So there's not a lot of people that are buying Denver Broncos stock. There's some, you know, there's more than last year. There's no doubt about it. But I still feel like there's a lot of people that are going to be saying this Denver team, they're not for real. And they're going to be proving that in these primetime games.

So hopefully the Broncos take it. advantage of that opportunity. Well, we know the by week comes at week 12, so late in the season, not coming after that week six game against the Jets in London. So you're going to go play a London game, you know, right after you play the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in week five, and then you've got to come back to play the New York Giants. Is it going to be Russell Wilson?

Is it going to be somebody else going to be Jackson Dart at quarterback or James Winston? I mean, you can kind of write the narratives, you know, a little bit early on on paper. But Denver, obviously, they're going to be facing in the first 11, weeks of the season, eight of their first 11 games are against AFC conference opponents, which that means, hey, they got to come out of the gates swinging. They got to come out on fire if they want to have a chance to make some noise this upcoming season here. And look, Broncos country, we're not done yet. We're going to continue our reaction to the Broncos 2025 NFL schedule review, including what stretches of the season, Sarah and myself think the Broncos have the easiest

stretch and which stretch will be the toughest for them in this schedule. You'll get that and much more. You know, today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode, Lockdown Broncos is brought to my friends over there at Fandul. As you all know, Fandu is America's number one sportsbook. And the NBA playoffs, they are in full swing with the second round ongoing. And every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can't miss moments, whether it's a game winning shot or a breakout player. There's never been a better time to get in on the action.

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City Thunder who are looking to close out that series. But if you think that Nicole Yolkich and Jamal Murray are going to put the team on their back. We already know that Yokic does that and you believe he's going to go off in a big game. Well, guess what? You can put together a live same game parlay. And if you put your first $5 bet on the line and it wins, you're going to win $200 in bonus bets. And if you're new to Fanduil, it's the perfect time to sign up. So head over to fanduel.com right now and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets. So make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. The easiest stretch of the 2025 season for the Denver Broncos might just be their first three games of the season. I'm going to tell you why I think that is. And Cody's going to tell you why he thinks it might be a different stretch of games later on in the year. And what's the toughest stretch for this Denver Broncos team?

Well, we've got some differing opinions on that as well on today's episode, locked on Broncos and Broncos country. Appreciate you so much for tuning into this bonus episode. Schedule release day for the Denver Broncos. and you know your boys, Cody and Sarah, we got you covered every single day with everything that happens for your Denver Broncos, no matter if it's the schedule release, roster moves, whatever it may be. So hit subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of the show. Let's talk about this, Cody, easiest stretches versus hardest stretches. I think it's interesting.

You and I both picked different spots for this. And it wasn't just for the sake of, hey, let's have different opinions so that we can talk about two different sections on the show. we actually both kind of predicted different areas here of the season that could be easier than the other. You've got an interesting stretch of five games here that you think could be the easiest for the Denver Broncos. Why do you think it's week six through 10 here for Denver? Well, I mean, first off, I mean, we all know that week five game against Philly is going to be tough, right? So for me, I kind of looked at it as like, all right, well, you play the Bengals and you play the Eagles back to back. You play the charters week three.

Is that the toughest schedule? I mean, is that the toughest slate could be. right we might be teasing something there but i was like then you face the jets the giants the cowboys the texans and the raiders where if the broncos play through the standard which we know that they can they have a chance to go five and oh during that stretch and look you're never going to get me trying to predict that you know game by game schedule win loss whatever i always feel like it's bad juju if i do that but i look at this i'm like all right hey this is the broncos best opportunity early on the season to take advantage of the schedule there where hey five wins

Okay, that's great. That's going to get you to half of where you're out there. But Denver opens up, Tennessee, Indianapolis. They win those couple of games there to open up there. Like Denver's got a chance. You and I were talking about this on Bleacher Report. If the Broncos, best case scenarios here, there's a chance Denver could go nine and two in the first half of the schedule.

There's going to be so much that goes right in order for that to happen. But for me, I think your best chance, especially going to that game where you're going to be facing, you know, after the Raiders, you're going to be facing the Kansas City Chiefs before you go into your my week, momentum, AFC divisional games, AFC conference games. Denver's going to take care of business, even though that in that stretch, they are going to face two NFC teams.

But five wins would be huge for the Broncos. That is my easier schedule, easiest part of the schedule. Yours is interesting. You want to explain yours a little bit because you talked about the start of the season being that for the Broncos, even though we know that Denver has been a team that we've known to get off to slow starts under Sean Payton the last couple of years. Yeah, notoriously slow. starters under Sean Payton, which is very frustrating. But I do think it's something the Broncos

can course correct on this year because I think now, as opposed to those first two years, the Broncos kind of have a markedly better roster than a lot of these teams. As you were talking about that five-game stretch that you have as the easiest stretch, I'm looking at the names of those teams, the Jets, Giants, Cowboys, Texans, Raiders. I'm sitting here thinking the Broncos have better rosters than all those teams right now. And there's not even a doubt in my mind when I'm thinking that. I think the same applies for the first three weeks of the season. When you talk about the Titans coming to Denver, you play the Indianapolis Colts on the road,

and then you play the LA Chargers. I think that's a stretch right there where not only do I feel like the Broncos have a better roster than those teams, but I also feel like that's maybe the worst three-game stretch on this schedule in terms of the quarterbacks you're going up against. When you're talking about Cam Ward playing his very first NFL game on the road against a top defense, whoever the heck is going to be starting between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. Not to disrespect those guys, but I don't feel like that's an advantage for the

Indianapolis Colts at this point. And then Justin Herbert, who I think is, I'm going to say this, Cody, and I'll probably get flamed for it by some people out there. But I think Justin Herbert is the best, worst quarterback in the NFL. I think he's like one of those guys that you can build around and he's going to be a great player for you. But if he was in the NBA, I bet you'd play for like eight different teams because he's like Harrison Barnes. You know, he's just a great player that you want to have around, but is he a star? I don't know. I'm not feeling that vibe from him.

So this isn't a Justin Herbert episode, though. I just, I think the Broncos, the Broncos have a good chance to start off three and O because I think that's the easiest stretch of quarterbacks in terms of a three-game period that they may play all season long. I would say the Denver did struggle a little bit against the Colts last year. Anthony Richon, for some reason early on was like, wow, of course. he's going to look like Superman a little bit early on a design quarterback around for a touchdown. You know, you have the Jonathan Taylor Fiasco.

And then, you know, he drops the ball, PJ Locke forces the fumble and then the Broncos, they go cooking from there. So it ended up working out in Devers favor. Let's transition out to the hardest stretch of the schedule. I feel like there are a couple points here. Mine comes a little bit early on in the season. I got them the hardest stretch on my calendar is weeks three, four, and five, right? You obviously have a matchup at the chargers on the road where I was, I always feel like, hey, that's tough.

The Broncos travel. Yes, they should have beaten the Charters on the road last year. Still a tough place to go after, you know, you were swept by the team last year. Then you got to play the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Monday night football. You know how good of a team Cincinnati is offensively, the firepower that they have. And then you play the reigning defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia. It was week five on the road, 11 a.m. mountain time kickoff. So really, there's only two games on the schedule where Denver has that East Coast start time, which, hey,

that's great news for them. But that, in my opinion, those three games are tough. Luckily, that comes at the beginning part of the season versus that being late down the stretch. Like Denver's schedule last year on paper, you know, when they were controlling their own destiny, I mean, it looked brutal on paper. They found a way to do it, but man, they almost didn't do it. Yeah, I think that's the proof right there that we can speak all we want on what's going to be the easiest stretch. What's going to be the toughest stretch?

I think once we get into the year, we're going to actually find that out. But to me, Cody, it's the toughest stretch of the season could potentially begin during what you have as the back end of the easiest stretch of games on the schedule. You go to the Texans and then you come back and play the Raiders on a short turnaround on Thursday night football. And then you play the chiefs who are coming off of thereby, which, man, that's so frustrating to me. The Broncos, they play the commanders. The Broncos are coming off a buy. You're feeling like, oh, that's great. And then you find out the commanders are also going to be coming.

off a buy and you're like, well, there goes that advantage, you know, so to speak, because teams often do play well coming off their buy. They got time to prepare. Andy Reed is one of the best ever when it comes to preparing and coming off the buy. So of course, the Broncos have to play Kansas City coming off their buy week right before Denver is about to go into its own buy week. It's just, of course, the NFL schedule makers had that happen. But at least they'll have an extra little bit of a stretch before that game.

It's not like the Chiefs have a ton of extra. your time compared to Denver just a handful of days there. But I think that could be kind of the ultimate test three games, right? You go to Houston, you play a playoff team. You play the Raiders at home, a divisional matchup, always going to be tough. And then you play the Chiefs right before your buy week. That stretch of three games right there is going to tell us, like, are the Broncos for real going into the buy? Are they going to be buyers at the NFL trade deadline? Are they going to be aggressive? Are they going to be good enough to be in a position to do that. And you want to be able to that closing out that point of the year and getting to the

by week with a record that says we are going to finish out this season and not only make the playoffs, but potentially make a run at the AFC West. I think that's going to be a tough stretch mentally to get to the by week for this team. Well, and even at the end of the season, too, you want to make sure you take care of business in your conference and divisional play. You know, you're going to face the Jaguars at Kansas City on Christmas Day and then home against the charters in that final week of the regular season. you got an opportunity to look after that Chiefs game, you're going to get a little bit of rest.

Maybe that's the benefit, you know, of that Christmas Day game is that the Chiefs and the Broncos are going to play that Sunday, but then they're going to turn it around and play that Thursday. Then they get extra rest. But the stakes could be very high for the AFC for the division and also for tiebreaker scenarios at that point. So I think taking care of business in those final three AFC conference games will be very pivotal here for the Broncos.

But as we look at the rest of this schedule here, where will the season be one or lost for this Broncos team? Well, you got to get off to a hot start and take care of business inside your conference play. We'll tell you how important that is here for the Broncos on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. If the season is going to be one or lost here for the Broncos this upcoming season, at what juncture is it most critical for them to perform at their best? We'll break that down here on today's schedule reveal bonus episode here on the Lockdown Broncos podcast.

I want to thank all the every dares out there on Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen here once again. Sarah, I find this to be interesting, right? Because you and I talked about it a little bit in the last segment. You want the Broncos to get off to a hot start. I look at this schedule. And yes, I think the second half is going to be crucial, right? You always want to see, like, can you come out of the buy week swinging?

That's going to be week 13 is when you come off that buy against the commanders. I feel like if the Broncos season is going to be one or lost, how they perform at this stretch of the season, I feel like is going to be the most crucial. and that is weeks really one through 10, the first 10 weeks of the season. You're going to even say the first half of the season here because, as I mentioned earlier, eight of your first 11 games here are AFC conference matchups. And you have your first out of your first three games, you have two of them on the road. It's a tough task, tough challenge here.

This is where the Broncos have to overcome. They can't, in my opinion, afford to get off to a slow start that we saw in 2023, who led them to a one in five record. But then they started to get their groove. They went on a five-game win streak. You can't, in my opinion, at the first part of the season, I never can't fall into that type of trap, I think, this upcoming season. Yeah, they can't be getting into a situation where you're sitting here

and we're doing an episode of the podcast saying, can the Broncos write the ship? Can the Broncos figure things out? Or are we going to be having fans talking about guys on the hot seat or benching players or things like that? I mean, that's the reality of kind of where we're at with, you know, just the shock jock nature of things. But at the same time, like, I get it that the Broncos can't, they can't start slow. There's no question about it.

I mean, can, like literally can they? Yes, they can. They could start slow and finish strong. But I just, I feel like, Cody, when you look at the meat of this schedule, we've had a number of people talk about, you know, listeners of the show, you know, kind of ping us and say, hey, that middle of the season is right where. the shifting and the turning of the tide is going to happen. And I agree with that because I think that when you look at that stretch of games, it's that stretch that you've mentioned that might be the easiest. That stretch right there, like if the Broncos can go four and one or five and no even in that

five game stretch, this team is going to be poised to go on it. Just think about the confidence that gives you going into the by week to know that, hey, with six games left to play, we've got a not just a shot. Like we can actually take the AFC West. you've got to put yourself in that position for those first before your buy week, right? You have to put yourself in position to be able to go into the buy and psych yourself up for those final six games to say, we actually could legitimately do this. Like we could go out, we could take Kansas City's spot at number one in the AFC West.

And what's really fascinating to me about the schedule, Cody, is that the majority of AFC West games, they come in the second half. And that to me is the real, you know, when you use. talk about where the season will be won or lost. I think it's in those divisional matchups, right? You play the Raiders on Thursday night football. I think the only game before that in the AFC West play for Denver is week three against the Chargers.

So they play every other AFC West matchup week 10 to the end of the season. Those matchups, they're going to be critical for AFC standing. They're going to be critical for just kind of jockeying for position in the AFC West, obviously. But man, when you get an opportunity to do that all in the second half of the season, after hopefully already having beat the chargers in week three, that's going to be that, hey, rubber meets the road right here for the Denver Broncos. So I think to me, it's always those AFC West matchups.

They played well against Kansas City last year in Kansas City, didn't finish the job. You swept the Raiders. You got pumped by the Chiefs twice. What's going to happen this year? Can you actually, can you go four and two or five and one or even better and sweep the division? Can you do four and two or better in 2025? Well, the Broncos somehow managed to sweep the division. We are talking about them hosting a playoff game in the month of January in the Mile High City,

which would certainly be fantastic here. I agree with you. Look, your divisional games are important. I can't remember off the top of my head what the Broncos conference record was last season. I mean, obviously, they were six and two at home. They were four and five on the road, finished with the 10 and 7 record. You know, they swept the NFC South, but you know, you're not going to face the NFC. FC South this year, you know, face the AFC South.

But the one thing I think we always do, or like fans do sometimes when you see the schedule come out, you base a lot of it off of what you saw last year, right? But come week 10, week 11, when never faced the Chiefs for the first time this season, Sarah, I wonder what the storylines are going to be around the NFL. I wonder what the landscape of the league is going to look like. What does the injury situation for every team look like? Because right now, as we're talking about this, we're looking at the schedule as like, best case scenario, if the Broncos take care of business, this is what we're talking about.

Real aspirations to win and take over the AFCUS to have that conquest over that division. I also look at it from the standpoint as like, hopefully the Broncos, knock on wood, they stay healthy the way that they have been under Sean Payton. You know, you don't want to see anybody get injured, but every year we see some teams hopes and dreams get derailed a little bit. It sometimes leads to a surprise emergence for somebody. But the Broncos, I feel like, Sarah, we've talked about it. when you're looking at your window to capitalize and dethrone Kansas City to take over the AFC West, this schedule, in my opinion, I feel like sets up perfectly for the Broncos to do just that.

And my schedule prediction I released earlier this week, I actually had them having a very difficult start, right? I talked about Monday night football against the Bengals, and then you have a road game against the Eagles, and then you have a Sunday night game in week three against Jaden Daniels and the commanders. That would have been brutal. Broncos fans were commenting left right. They're like, that is a tough schedule. This one plays out, I think, much more favorably than the one that I had put out there. Yeah, it definitely does.

I think when you look at this schedule, you almost kind of breathe a sigh of relief, right? You're almost like, oh, wow. Yeah, it looks good for the Broncos. I mean, it's tough. The NFL is tough. It's always going to be tough. You might win some games you shouldn't and you might lose some games you should have won, but it's always going to be, you know, one of those things to where last year,

I think when we looked at it, we were kind of like, dang, Like, that's, that's tough. In 2023, when we looked at it, remember the stretch of games? The Broncos actually went on a little bit of a streak. We looked at that when the schedule released and we were like, dang, that's going to be tough for them. So I think when you look at this one, you almost breathe a bit of a sigh of relief. It's kind of nice for the Broncos.

And look, Cody, not to throw a hot take out there, but man, I'm thinking about these. I'm connecting the dots in my head as we're talking. The Broncos were one and six last year in one score games. They struggled to finish games. and they drafted a guy who had three game-winning touchdown catches at the college level. You never know, hey, how many of those one-score games can Pat Bryant come through in? But realistically speaking here, how many wins do you see for the Kansas City Chiefs this year? Without even looking at their schedule, knowing how they played last year,

knowing how they've kind of just, man, they feel like they've been taking punches left and right. It feels like the tipping point for them is coming soon. How many wins do you see for the Chiefs this year? and do you think the Broncos can get past that number? I think that they can. Maybe I can look at this because I haven't looked at their schedule specifically since we've been reacting to the schedule reveal. But I think lowest floor here for the chief schedule, nine wins.

I think for them 13 to 14 wins. But then again, I still think that they're in a position where they're kind of in a drop-off. But then again, every time we said that about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, When we started to see a little bit of, you know, moments here and there in the postseason or the regular season, what do they do? They always had the last laugh. The Chiefs have been to the AFC championship game. Gosh, so many times, and I mean, so many times straight in a row year after year after year, the amount of Super Bowl appearances they've had since Patrick Mahomes has obviously been their quarterback. You can never write them off as much as I think everyone in Broncos country hates the Chiefs, hates Mahomes.

They are the top dog. And at least going into the season, they're going to be the favorite probably to win the division. but I think the Broncos, I think with what we saw with how Bo Nix performed when he faced off against Mahomes in that first matchup at Arrowhead last year, let a game winning drive, a special team blunder, kind of put a little bit of an asterisk on that a little bit and overshadowed exactly what Bo Nix was able to do and achieve. I think that there's real merit here that the Broncos, I mean, their win total, according to their friends over their fan, who are sportsbook set at nine and a half wins, I got them hitting at least 11 wins this season. where I'm going to start out. And look, we'll see how it ages. I think so, too. I think 11, 12 wins sounds about right for them.

So can the Broncos get past that? That's going to be the key. Or can they at least win those matchups against those two, the chiefs in those two games that they have because you can finish with the same record and still win the AFC West. But I think for Denver, it's going to take 12 games. And you and I have talked about this. Man, they really were close last year to winning, what, 14, 15 games. I mean, we talk about playing in one score games and the games that they realistically should have won or at least had a great chance of winning the Chargers game, the Bengals game, and you could split hairs about a couple of others. I mean, this team was really close to potentially winning 13, 14 games last season already.

So I don't think it's super far-fetched to think the Broncos can win 12, maybe even 13 games if you get optimistic. Obviously, that's a very optimistic projection at this point, but we're also predicting some progression for this team. I think the Broncos have a chance to win the AFC West this year. You look at this schedule. I think it sets them up well to start fast, to have a good first half of the season or whatever you want to call before the bye week. And then the six games to close out of the season, that doesn't look like a gauntlet by any means for this team to finish out.

Well, Broncos, country. I know your thoughts on the 2025 NFL schedule. We'll hear for your Denver Broncos. We know who they're going to play. We know where and when they're going to play. how will the Broncos do this upcoming season? We're excited to be along for the journey, along for the ride with all of you in Broncos,

country, all the everydayers, every step of the way. For all of you out there, you want to know what we're going to talk about on tomorrow's episode of show? Which games where we see the rookies have some breakout performances? When can we expect Jada Baron to have an impact? What will be RJ Harvey's breakout game? Pat Bryant, Savian Jones. We'll go through all that and much more.

On tomorrow's episode, Lockdown Broncos, Broncos country. We'll see you then.