{"id":1039958,"date":"2026-10-29T03:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T03:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1039958\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T03:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T03:09:15","slug":"if-broncos-dont-beat-k-c-theyll-be-exposed-as-wannabes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1039958\/","title":{"rendered":"If Broncos don&#8217;t beat K.C., they&#8217;ll be exposed as wannabes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s a burr under the Broncos\u2019 saddle. And it hurts so good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They not only know the story that angers them by heart, but allow the insult of this narrative burn in their veins.<\/p>\n<p>\n        Recommended Stories<br \/>\n        \u25b6\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kansas City has a real championship-caliber quarterback. Denver does not. These Broncos aren\u2019t good. They\u2019re a fluke, a one-year wonder, riding the good fortune of winning close games, luck that\u2019s doomed to crap out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, that derogatory narrative qualifies as fighting words in Broncos Country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But those words aren\u2019t mine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sentiment that Denver isn\u2019t regarded as a serious championship contender was uttered bluntly Wednesday by receiver Courtland Sutton when I asked him if the Broncos and Chiefs should now be considered as equals in the upcoming heavyweight bout for control of the AFC West.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYes, we may have won the division last year. But there still doesn\u2019t feel as if there\u2019s this respect (that) the Broncos are a really good football team,\u201d said Sutton, repeating what he regards as the national narrative about the Broncos. \u201cI think people are still thinking that we rode off a high (in 2025) and there\u2019s this fluke of what happened last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite a noticeable decline in his key statistics, including passing yards and touchdown passes in each of the past three seasons, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is considered football royalty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Bo Nix is the cause of hand-wringing after repeatedly being accused this autumn of being the greatest hindrance to Denver\u2019s lofty dream of making a deep playoff run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite ending a reign that saw the Chiefs turn the AFC West into their personal kingdom of glory from 2016-24, the Broncos aren\u2019t considered a legit Super Bowl threat outside of Colorado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the computer-generated analytics of ESPN\u2019s Power Index, with a 5-2 record, Denver is currently ranked no better than the league\u2019s 14th-best team, just ahead of the 2-5 Houston Texans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can you handle the truth, Broncos Country?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nobody in NFL Nation will truly take this Denver team seriously if it flops at home and loses for the second time in this still-young season to Kansas City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the Chiefs were to win the AFC West nine years out of 10, with a single interruption in the reign, what would the Broncos look like?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fluke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think teams in our league start with Goal 1: win the division. Goal 2 is best playoff seed. And Goal 3 is win a championship,\u201d Denver coach Sean Payton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I asked him: Can the Broncos win the AFC West if they get swept in the home-and-away season series against Kansas City?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s another way of asking if this is a must-win game to win the division,\u201d Payton replied. \u201cAnd I would say it probably isn\u2019t, because there\u2019s so much season left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With all due respect to my good buddy <a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/2026\/10\/17\/kickin-it-with-kiz-boo-nix-but-bench-him-not-now\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1534800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. Crabbypants<\/a>, I must strongly disagree with Payton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, there is much football yet to be played between now and when playoff football heats up in the January cold. In a brutal sport that\u2019s often unfair, the Broncos\u2019 place in the conference standings, as well as the fortunes of any other AFC team on a championship quest, could be adversely affected by devastating injuries, blown calls and bad bounces of the football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of there being statement games in the NFL is probably talked about too loosely. But this showdown against Kansas City will tell us a lot about the Broncos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Either Denver will take control of the division with a victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or the Broncos will be exposed as wannabes in defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A loss won\u2019t erase them from the Super Bowl hunt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A victory, however, will put them squarely back in the race for the No. 1 seed in the conference playoff field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got to show up each week and go show everybody and prove to ourselves that we are who we said we are \u2026 and last year wasn\u2019t a fluke. It wasn\u2019t just a flash in the dark,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that we have to stand up and stand on 10 toes: We are who we say we are, week in and week-out. And this week, it\u2019s against the Chiefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After getting any sense of entitlement knocked out of them during a 31-10 season-opening loss in Kansas City, do you know what might be the most encouraging change that has emerged in the vibe of this Denver team while it battled through a tough gauntlet of early-season games?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Broncos have ditched any notion they have arrived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They\u2019re again angry outsiders, fighting for every shred of respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a burr under the Broncos\u2019 saddle. And it hurts so good. They not only know the story&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1039959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[925,346,1270,258,7,118,110,2438,2437,60429,6,499,1813,9],"class_list":["post-1039958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-bo-nix","tag-chiefs","tag-courtland-sutton","tag-denver-broncos","tag-football","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-mark-kiszla","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117522003626226407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}