Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - PREDICTION: Denver Broncos Open Season vs. Cincinnati Bengals | Bo Nix vs. Joe Burrow

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

The Denver Broncos 2025 NFL schedule will be released on Wednesday evening, but we predict that they'll open up the season against the Cincinnati Bengals in primetime with Bo Nix vs. Joe Burrow. Plus, will the Broncos and Sean Payton have four primetime games and is a London trip in the books? We predict the Denver Broncos 2025 NFL schedule. 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.

Joe Burl versus Boe Nixon, week one of the NFL season. We're going to predict the Denver Broncos 2025 NFL schedule 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? Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network where you know what is your team every day.

for all your Broncos news, content coverage, analysis, more you get it every single day all year long here on the show. And real quick, Broncos Country, thank you so much to everyone out there who tunes in and makes us your first listen every single day. Special shout out to all the everydayers out there. We appreciate you so much for making the show exactly what it is. I'm your host. As always, Cody Rourke, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports.

Run a solo today, Sarah Beninger will rejoin us here sometime this week as he's in Disney World with his family. We've got a lot to break down on today's episode of show. Broncos country. We are predicting the 2025 NFL schedule. We all know that the release officially happens on Wednesday evening at 6 o'clock p.m. Mountain Time. So you have reactions to that here on the show.

We're going to go through and take our pick and being able to predict the schedule. And obviously going through week one, we highlighted it. We teased it. Joe Burrow versus Boehnicks in prime time to open up the season. Sign us up for that. We'll go through how many primetime games the Broncos will have this upcoming season. and a London trip appears to be on the books here for this team. When will that come?

We'll break all that down and much more on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by our friends over there at Fanduil America's number one sportsbook because right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So check it out. Let's get into a Broncos country. Let's waste no time here as we go through and predict the entire 18 game schedule here for the Broncos. And look, I was looking at the schedule. at how many home games the Broncos have this year, as opposed to away games.

They've got nine home games on deck, eight away games. One of those will be an international game, which we'll get into here and a little bit here. But I was thinking to myself, okay, hey, the NFL, you always want to open up with a bang. And there's some rumored games that have already come out across the NFL. So you take some of those into your consideration. Somebody said that the Chargers and the Chiefs in Brazil, week one is something that's probably going to happen. So I was like, all right, well, it's not going to be the Broncos opening against L.A. or Kansas City. I gave a little bit of a spicer one here. Week one of the NFL season, I got the Broncos

taking on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals at home Monday night football. You get that Cincinnati highly paid offense with Joe Burrell with the weapons that they got there and Jamar Chase T. Higgins bringing Mike Giseki back into the mix for them. They added an offensive tackle in the NFL draft. And then, you know, former former friend, Symage P. Ryan is there. And look, this is the Cincinnati offense that gave the. The Broncos a lot of fits last season. So I thought, you know what better way to open up the season than an AFC rematch between Joe Burrell and Bowdox, where the Broncos had a heavily revamped defense where a lot of that Cincinnati game last year factored into some of the decision making.

They went out and got Tala Noah whofonged safety, Drey Greenlaw at inside linebacker, Jaday Barron, and he 2025 NFL draft. So I think that's a spicy way, prime time at home, that atmosphere at Empowerfield, mile high will be electric. That's a great way to open up the season here with a bang. And then we're going to get on here to week number two. Now, we're going to go through here in weeks two and weeks three in the Broncos. They're going to play back-to-back NFC road games in my schedule prediction here. Week two, it isn't an easy one. Look, you're open up against Cincinnati. You know that's going to be fireworks. That's going to be a tough matchup. Week two, even tougher. The Denver Broncos will be on the road in week two against the Philadelphia Eagles, the defending Super Bowl,

champions for an 11 a.m. Eastern time road kickoff. That's going to be a challenge. I mean, so it would be 11 a.m. Mountain time for an Eastern road trip here for Denver. But the Broncos offensive boneicks heading to Philadelphia to take on Vic Fangio, who's the defensive coordinator there. Of course, Philadelphia reloaded on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL draft. They re-signed Zach Bonded inside linebacker. They got one of the most stout defensive lines in all of football that allowed them to only rush four in the Super Bowl game. Patrick Mahomes, that's a tough test here for the Broncos.

And I would rather this game be played a little bit earlier in the season than let's say at the midway point or even at the end. And so a really big challenge here. You know, you get to go on the road for week number two here and you're going to find out a little bit of what this Broncos team has made of. And you follow that up with another NFC East showdown. This time, though, folks, we are heading to prime time. It opens up the opportunity for the Broncos and Sean Payton,

maybe to return to the green briar for a little bit of a stint here. some team bonding, even though it wasn't well received by the players when everything happened. Granted, it was during a hurricane. So maybe that factored into it. Maybe this time the weather would be great. But instead, you know, you play Philadelphia week two. You go to week three here. It's Bo Nix versus Jaden Daniels in Sunday night football in a huge matchup between two second year

quarterbacks where you could have made a strong argument for Bo Nix to win offensive rookie of the year in 2024. Of course, Jaden and Daniels had a great season as well. historic season as well from his standpoint. But everyone's starting to ignore Bo Nix and what he did last year. I think this is a great game for Bo Nix and say, hey, you guys forgot about me. That is a week three matchup that I have here on the NFL schedule prediction. And then you get a little bit of breathing room, I would say here, in terms of strength of

schedule in weeks four. Okay, week four, you got Denver after that Sunday night football game against the commanders. Week four, you're coming home. You're facing the Tennessee Titans who obviously are going to be bringing the number one overall pick Cam Ward into the Mile High City to face off against this vaunted Broncos defense on paper. That'll be a challenge for a young quarterback like Cam Ward, but also, you know, Cam Ward's athletic. He can make plays off structure. So it'd be maybe a little bit of a challenge here for the Broncos defense early on as well. You can't overlook a guy just because he's a rookie.

Look what we saw with Jaden Daniels last year. Look what we saw with Bo Nix. You can't write these guys off. Though this year's NFL draft classic quarterback, I think was widely arreste. argued in the draft process that even with Cam Ward, it wasn't necessarily a strong overall draft class. But Denver getting that test a little bit early on here, week four in the Tennessee Titans come to town. And then I have the Broncos coming up here in week number five of the regular season in my 2025 NFL schedule prediction.

I've got them having a tough AFC West road test against the revamped new look, Las Vegas Raiders led by Pete Carroll, Gino Smith, the quarterback. And then obviously they went and they've added some offensive weapons in the NFL draft. They got Ashton Genty. So the Broncos defense, when you talk about running backs that they're going to have to face in the first couple of weeks, okay, hey, you got to face Saquan Barkley week two, Ashton Genty in week five. That might be a really good measuring stick here for the Broncos defensively in terms of can they be a little bit more consistent at stopping the run against some of these really good backs.

That was obviously something they improved on last season. there were a couple of games. They had some letdowns against the run, particularly in the playoff game against the Buffalo Bill. So are we going to get a little bit of a test at how the Broncos defense can improve in this category here and be more consistent this upcoming season? Well, Ashton Genty, tough AFC road test.

That's going to be a good challenge. We all know Broncos country, they travel well. So I imagine that matchup in Vegas, you're going to see a lot of orange in the stands, but you've got to go against Max Crosby, who's obviously a very talented guy. He's been a boogeman here for the Denver Broncos. This is going to be a fun matchup here, but you have an AFC West Divisional matchup early on here.

I think it's important that you get a positive record there. And look, in the first five weeks, you've got one, two, three AFC conference matchups, which you need to take care of business. And that when we talk about eventual tiebreakers down the stretch. We don't know what the Titans or the Raiders are going to be like. I think we can assume that they're not going to be, you know, at the top of the AFC. But you never know. The NFL is a year-to-year league.

It changes. Some teams stay at the top. Some teams rise from the bottom. And you've got to hope that that's not the case with the Titans and the Raiders. But to recap here, the first five weeks of the season, Broncos Country, we obviously the Bengals, you got that matchup opening up there, the Eagles and week two on the road, week three at the commanders on Sunday night football,

week four against the Tennessee Titans at home. And then a week five road matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. But Broncos country, we're not done yet as we continue to preview the 2025 schedule prediction here for the Broncos, giving our thoughts as to what week six through the rest of the regular season will look like, well, the Broncos, they're going to be heading to London to take on a familiar opponent. We'll break that matchup down and much more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Broncos Country, today's episode, the show is brought to you by friends over there at Fandu. And as we all know, Fandu is America's number one sportsbook. And right now,

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Head to Fandul.com and place your first $5 bet. and if it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets that you can use on the NBA playoffs. Make every moment more with Fandu, official sports betting partner of the NBA. Our 2025 Denver Broncos schedule prediction continues after Denver opens up the season with a little bit of bang and some tough competition early on here. But this part of the season, week six and on, is going to set the table for how the Broncos may do the rest of the way. And how they come out of the gates here is very important. in the first six weeks of the regular season. We'll get into that much more here on today's episode.

Lockdown Broncos real quick. I want to say thank you once again, everyone in Broncos country, all the everydayers out there. Thanks for making us your first listen. And look, if you're not yet a subscriber, become an becoming every day. So you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team, including when the actual NFL schedule drops,

you're going to get reaction from it here, live from myself, Cody Ork. Boy, Sarah Bedinger on the Broncos official 2025 schedule. We'll break it all down here. But let's continue on here. It's fun predicting these. And look, Broncos countries, you're listening or watching along here on the show, make sure you share your 18-week regular season schedule prediction here for the Denver Broncos.

I want to see who gets as close as they can. We'll see how close I get. I have no idea what's going to happen. But that's the fun part about the guessing game, especially during a time where there's a bunch of leaks and people talking about what they think is actually going to happen. Let's predict and let's have some fun with it here. We ended off in the first segment talking about the Broncos week five road matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. we highlighted that here.

But then they're going to head to London in week six. Yes, folks, an international game here for the Denver Broncos. It happens to be a road matchup. We already kind of heard some rumblings that the Broncos and wanted to play the Colts in Germany and Berlin. But the Colts apparently that has come out. Some information has come out that the Colts blocked that from happening. So the Broncos, they'll take on a familiar face and a couple of facets here from the organization. and obviously the New York Jets, Darren Mucci, the new general manager for the Jets coming over from the Denver Broncos.

And obviously, first year head coach Aaron Glenn, who's under the Sean Payton coaching tree. Can Sean get one up on his former coach? And can the Broncos and George Payton get one up on Darren Mucci, who's been behind the scenes for so many years in Broncos country? And that's going to be a matchup against Justin Fields in them. So you have a matchup that if it is in London, it'll probably be a 9.30 a.m. mountain time kickoff, probably on NFL network and maybe CBS at that point. But I figure, you know what, you're going to have this matchup early on. There's also been a couple of rumors that week six was kind of that sweet spot for an

international game here for the Broncos. I thought there was one like week six and even week 10. Well, the Broncos are going to get that early. So what that means is that Denver's by is going to come a little bit earlier than it's accustomed to the last couple of seasons where they've had a little bit of a more middle of the season, late season by week this week because you're playing at the Jets in London. Well, now you get to come back from London, which obviously you talk about the delay, you talk about the travel.

There's a lot that goes into it. You go and you take a buy week here and now you get a chance to rest guys, get guys back healthy in week seven. That's when the by week and my prediction will come here for the organization. And then this is where it gets juicy in this middle part of the season. It's going to really set the table for the end here. Number eight, the Broncos will open up at home against the Los Angeles Chargers and Justin Herbert, a team that had swept them last season. Really, the Broncos had to come back from being down 20-0 in that first game against Herbert

and the Chargers in the Jim Harbaugh era. And that was a little bit of an exciting thing to see for Bo Nix because they found a way to be resilient in that second half. But the story was the Broncos lost Pats are 10 early on in that game due to a concussion. And so they had to adjust there. They got themselves down early. the offense had some turnovers, you know, multiple three and outs, but then they rallied back and unfortunately fell short and were ultimately swept by the

Chargers last season. So week eight, you open up at home coming off the by week against the Chargers and AFC West Showdown, which as we know, anytime you face your divisional rivals, that is a clutch. I mean, that is a crucial thing that you must take care of. And can the Broncos come up clutch against them in that category? And that's going to be obviously the first of two straight home games here for Denver, the Chargers week eight, but then,

Trevor Lawrence comes to town here in week number nine as the Jaguars visit. And look, I think the storyline here in this game, obviously a first year head coach there and Liam Cohen. But I think you look at where the Broncos are at and some of the storylines that, you know, kind of have this Colorado theme to it. How cool would it be to see Patrick Sertan the second playing against Travis Hunter, where, you know, he's going to be covering and following Travis Hunter when he plays offense?

And then imagine this, Travis Hunter, if he does, in fact, play two ways. offense and defense this upcoming season. You got Travis Hunter against Cortland Sutton. That to me, I think, would just be an exciting thing to watch, considering where the Jaguars are. Also for Evan Ingram, this could be a potential revenge game for the Broncos Joker tied in after the team released him this offseason. It kind of made him mad.

He posted a tweet about it on social media after it happened. Now he's got a chip on his shoulder and that Joker card out. This will be a fun thing to watch here if it does formulate this way. But then the Broncos going into week number 10 of the 2020, regular season in our scheduled prediction. I've got them going on the road for Sunday night football against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs here. Obviously, the second matchup overall between Bo Nix, Patrick Mahomes.

The last time these two players faced off against each other, it was heartbreak in Arrowhead as Bo Nix led what should have been a game-winning drive. But special teams, field go block, disaster. And that really was a tone setter here. The Broncos woke up from that. They decided that, hey, this did not feel good. And they went on a little bit of a run themselves there. I feel like that is definitely something we're going to watch here is can Bo Nix and Patrick Mahomes do it in the prime time?

Can Bo Nix out dual Patrick Mahomes here? And what will the Broncos offense look like at this point? I think week 10, a Sunday night football matchup here, it's not really to the point where you got to worry about really bad weather in Kansas City. But it's also, I think, early enough in the season where the stakes are very high. and I think you're going to get a good performance here regardless. I think the Broncos is going to be at very good point here at week 10, especially a few weeks removed from their buy week where maybe things might be clicking a little bit more. That's obviously the hope.

And then Denver will follow up. Obviously that week 10 game on the road at Kansas City, I've got them coming home in week 11 to take on the New York Giants. And the biggest question here, Broncos country, is Russell Wilson still going to be the starter here for the New York Giants at this point? Look, there's Russell Wilson. There's James Winston, Obviously, we know that.

And then obviously, there's Jackson Dart. They drafted a quarterback. They traded back in a round one to get him. They have some talent there. Malik neighbors, a wide receiver. PS2 versus him would certainly be fun. Tyrone Tracy's a flashy young player at running back there for the Giants. But really, for me, it's going to be Russ.

Will we finally get that potential revenge game where he's coming back to Denver, where things didn't end well for him? And he doesn't really have any good things to say about Sean Payton. That one, I can imagine. We didn't get it in 20, 24 when that was supposed to happen week two when the Steelers came to town. But now you get it on paper here a little bit later on the season. Week 11, the bigger question, will Russ still be the starter? I like the storylines.

I like some of the ties that bind here as the schedule has formulated in this prediction so far. And Broncos country, obviously, want to know your thoughts as we get here to week 11 against the Giants. But really, week 12 through week 18, it is going to be a sludge here for the Broncos. There's going to be some mud. There's going to be a lot of heavy terrain that the Broncos are going to have to track through. And we're going to break that down, including all the top AFC conference matchups down in the stretch. They're going to set the table for a potential AFC West crown for this Broncos football team. If all goes accordingly, we'll break that down and much more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.

The fourth quarter action of today's episode, Lockdown Broncos is here. And we're going to predict weeks 12 through eight of what we think the Broncos' 2025 NFL schedule will be. you once again, Broncos Country, all the everydayers out there for rocking with us, making us your first list and making us part of your day. And hey, if you know someone in Broncos Country that doesn't know about this show or this podcast, share this with them, get them on board to be coming every day as we continue to grow this thing to get Broncos Country the best objective Broncos podcast in front of their face every single day. You're not going to get better coverage than what we bring to the table here.

I'm boots on the ground every day in the Valley for practice, for home games, away games. You get all that coverage. on Locked on Broncos from an authentic point of view. So we appreciate you so much. Let's continue on with this schedule prediction here for 2025. Now, obviously, to note that we expect the schedule release to officially happen, Wednesday, 6 o'clock p.m. Mountain Time. Your boy, Sarah Bedinger, myself, we're going to go through and we're going to break it down

as it actually happens. So you're going to get a breakdown, kind of what you're getting today, but we're going to actually know when and where the Broncos will play, how many primetime games they'll play? Will they play in the international series? and what are some of the storylines. We'll go through all of that as it sets the table for the 2025 season for the Denver Broncos. We left off at week 11 where the Broncos are going to host the New York Giants.

Week number 12 is going to be a big one here because it is a primetime game here. And it is an AFC West divisional game. It's an AFC conference game against the Los Angeles Charters. The Broncos obviously played them in week eight in our schedule prediction. Well, a few weeks later they're going to play them once again, Thursday night football. two years in a row Denver versus L.A. in prime time. But can Sean Payton, the Broncos, get it right, this go-round after having that two-score lead advantage in that second half of that last game that they played last season on Thursday night football, where they ran the ball well in the first half, but couldn't really do anything in the second half.

And the Broncos defense couldn't get a stop against Justin Herbert. Thursday night football, I have a feeling this one could go differently for the Broncos if they play their cards right. And then this is where I think the schedule prediction, it got a little tricky, right? Because in my head, I'm going through and I'm formulating, all right, Denver's got nine home games. They've got nine away games. And you already have played quite a few games really in that first half of your schedule on the road. It's some tough ones, two back-to-back ones early on in week two and week three. But for me, I've got Denver because of that, they have more home games this year.

They are going to have a couple of stretches here down. I'd say the more important stretch where they will have back. to back home games twice to close out the season. And obviously, two road games in a row here in that last final stretcher. So we talked about that Thursday night game, week 12, at the chargers. Well, let's get into what will be two straight home games here for the Broncos. And they're going to be NFC conference matchups. So this isn't going to help the Broncos in terms of their AFC conference record,

but they are important games to win because, hey, any game, one game, it can be a difference maker. And you making the playoffs or missing the playoffs, it can be a total game changer. Denver's going to have two tough opponents right now on paper in week 13 and week 14. First off, home game against the Dallas Cowboys that obviously they have C.D. Lamb. Javante Williams returning to face his former team here. Dak Prescott fully healthy. So obviously PS2 versus C.D. Lamb is obviously going to be a fun matchup to watch there.

George Pickens, who obviously had a big game, you know, I'd say in theory against the Broncos last season in week two. But penalties brought back a couple of his big plays last season. So you're going to get those two tough wide receivers right there. Whose PS2 going to match up is going to be Pickens, Receive, Lam, who Jadae or Riley Moss going to match up against as well. I'm excited to see this. Drake Greenline, I think also loves playing the Cowboys, so that's going to be a fun matchup.

Then you get in a week number 14, Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers are going to be coming to town. And obviously the Broncos have faced the Packers in recent memory in the preseason. They had joint training camp practices last year. So there is some familiarity there. you look at the wide receiver. Christian Watson is going to be coming off of a knee injury, but they have a ton of talented wide receivers and young guys at that position.

Of course, Josh Jacobs, who's always been a thorn on the side of the Broncos, anytime that those guys have faced off when he was a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, he's going to be part of the mix as well. But then they got Matthew Golden, the guy that got in the NFL draft that's got some game-changing speed that the Broncos are certainly going to have to worry about a little bit defensively. So two tough NFC matchups in week 13 and week 14.

but to really kind of set the stage for the final four weeks of the season, they're all AFC matchups in weeks 15, 16, 17, and week 18 that could have big time playoff implications and some potential AFC West implications as well. So let's start off here with the first matchup to kind of set the stage. The Broncos have two matchups remaining in our scheduled prediction against the AFC South. That is going to be obviously week 15 at the Indianapolis Colts. This was a matchup that we had thought initially earlier. Denver was going to be playing on the road in Berlin.

Colts had blocked it. But anyways, Denver facing the Colts on the road. And the question is, is it going to be Anthony Richardson, a quarterback? Or is it going to be Daniel Jones? They have a group of talented wide receivers. And they obviously have very talented running back in Jonathan Taylor. But the question here is going to be who's under center for the quarterback position? And can the Broncos, you can find a way?

Because the Colts, you know, typically play pretty strong defense. And that was something that the Broncos, even though the Colts had one, the worst defenses in the NFL last season, one of the worst run Ds as well. Denver struggled a little bit until they had that momentum shift where Jonathan Taylor dropped the ball at the one yard line or the inch line, and then that led to a momentum swing. PJ lock, forced the phone with the Broncos get in all of a sudden. Denver's cooking with gas the rest of that game against the Colts last season, which they would have lost that. Denver would have been in trouble because they wouldn't have controlled their own destiny to make it in the postseason. So that was a big game when you look back at it in hindsight.

well now you've got to face that team at a crucial juncture of your season week 15 on the road and then it doesn't get any easier the next week week 16 i've got them heading to the houston texans to take on cj stroud neco collins and company here and look this is a big match of the broncos obviously in the last couple of years have played the houston texans in houston it was sean peyton's first year back in twenty twenty three russell wilson was the quarterback denver got down early nico collins almost had 200 yards receiving against the them in a game where Pat Sertan hurt his knee and eventually came back in. Tank Dell, unexpected, I think, to play this season in Houston. We'll continue to monitor that. But, man, what a tough, tough stress to have here down late in the season, late in the schedule here for the Broncos who have playoff ambitions. They're not satisfied with just last year of getting there. They want to host a playoff game this upcoming season.

So, hey, this is going to really prove whether or not Denver can make that happen. And I think as well, you know, some of the questions that you've seen on the schedule, about the Broncos and Bo Nix entering year number two. You look at C.J. Stroud last year, he had a sophomore slump. But I felt like that was more relative to personnel. I think some injuries obviously impacted them. Nico Collins was out for a good portion of time last season with a hamstring injury. Then you lose Tank Dell to an injury.

The Texans still make the playoffs to beat the charges in round number one. So this Texan team is not a team that you can sleep on in any way, shape, or form, even though I felt like they've made some questionable decisions on the offensive line in terms of the off season. They've trade away a couple players. They've added some pieces there as well. So what is that going to look like for C.J. Stroud going into year number three.

There's a lot of stuff riding on the table here for the Texans. Obviously, we'll have a new offensive coordinator after they fired Bobby Sloick, which was an interesting decision in and of itself. So, hey, you have Colts, Texans, Weeks 15, and Week 16. But you know what? If you want the AFC West, if you want a hosted playoff game, you got to win your division. You got to find a way to do it. You got to take care of business.

the Broncos in week 17. I've got them hosting Pete Carroll, Gino Smith and company, Ashton Genty for an AFC West matchup in week 17 to 25 p.m. Mountain Time kickoff. That's going to be a big game. These two teams obviously dislike each other. We'll see how the earlier result on in the season goes. Denver plays them week five in my schedule prediction, but then they won't play them again here until week 17. And then the moment everyone's been waiting for, what does week 18 look like for this Broncos team? What are the stakes? Are they high? Oh, yes, they are. If the Broncos cards fall how they would like and they perform to the level, I think, which we all believe that they can. I think this is going to be a fun thing. And look, the NFL schedule makers, why not? Why not look at it from this standpoint?

The Broncos, they made some noise. They're being talked about a lot this off season. All right, you know, you have a primetime matchup early on the season and week 10 against the Chiefs on Sunday night football. But let's close out week 18 of the regular season in a year where we think the Chiefs, They're still going to be the top dog till somebody knocks them off, but week 18 is going to be the deciding factor for the AFC West Crown. The Denver Broncos hosting a home game against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in a game that can be flexed at prime time. So if this is the case, if the stakes are high, the Broncos playing another Sunday night football game here because of it getting flexed.

Mahomes versus Bo Nicks for the AFC West Crown. I would love this to be the case. because it amplifies everything. It makes week 18 of the regular season meaningful. The stakes higher. Now, last year for the Broncos against the Chiefs, Mahomes and the starters did not play. But for the Broncos, the stakes were high,

and they rose to the occasion. They throttled Kansas City and all their backups. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. But now the challenge, it is, Bo Nex versus Mahomes, versus Kelsey, versus whoever they have a wide receiver at this point, versus their running back room. That, to me, I think, is going to be the most exciting part.

And I think there's Broncos defense, they're going to feed off that energy at Empower Field a mile high. And I think this is going to be a great way to set the tone. If the Broncos can get themselves in a position to where them in Kansas City at this juncture of the season, winner takes all. That is a storybook here. And a win for the Broncos in this situation and scenario, if it plays out the way that we all want it to, the Broncos get a host a playoff game. Well, you know, not sure if they get a first round by. I mean, obviously, the AFC is loaded across the board.

but you want to have a home playoff game. This is the perfect opportunity to do so. Heck, even the loser of this game could end up playing the same opponent in a matchup on the road. So like even if Denver loses this game, I can see Denver facing off against Kansas City in the playoffs. So if Denver wins, maybe a rematch against Kansas City in the playoffs once again here. But Broncos country, this is always a fun exercise. Look, this is as we await for the regular season schedule to get announced here on Wednesday, 6 o'clock p.m. this is fun discussion.

So make sure you create your schedule predictions. You send them into here on lockdown Broncos. And we'll see how close someone gets. And, hey, if there is somebody, maybe I think that gets close. I will Venmo you. I'll send you like money for Chick-fil-A or something at this point. If anyone can get maybe 14 out of the 18 games correct in their slot at alignment, that might be a fun thing.

Winner gets some Chick-fil-A here. But Broncos Country, we appreciate you so much for Rock with us, making us your first listen of the day every single day. We'll have you cover for the schedule release. The moment it comes out, we'll go through how many primetime games, whether or not the Broncos play an international series. And then later on, we have some other topics for you, breaking off the schedule release as to which games might we see a rookie breakout on offense or defense and vice versa.

There's so much in store for you here on Locked-on Broncos. But for your second listen of the day, folks, go check out Locked-on NFL scouting. The NFL draft is over, but the roster moves and lose never stops. Host Kyle Crabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fans throughout the offseason, find locked on NFL scouting on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. Broncos country, we'll see you tomorrow.