{"id":994696,"date":"2026-09-07T23:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/994696\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T23:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:42:22","slug":"how-the-broncos-are-preparing-for-the-chiefs-with-extra-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/994696\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Broncos are preparing for the Chiefs with extra time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, the Denver Broncos started their season on \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d with what\u2019s referred to as the \u201cHackett game,\u201d a sloppy 17-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks marked by 12 penalties and a puzzling coaching choice to attempt a 64-yard field goal<\/a> at the end of the game. It remains the most infamous of the franchise\u2019s nine Monday night openers since 2000.<\/p>\n

Week 1 on a Monday won\u2019t be unfamiliar to Broncos fans. But this year\u2019s opener in Kansas City arrives under unusual circumstances. The 17-day gap between Denver\u2019s third preseason game<\/a> and the Sept. 14 contest in Kansas City is the longest duration between a preseason finale and a season opener in team history.<\/p>\n

In response, coach Sean Payton has adjusted his team\u2019s schedule. Under Payton, a Monday game week typically means the Broncos are off Tuesday and Wednesday, then practice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But Payton shifted the schedule slightly this week: Denver will practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday this week, with an added rest and recovery day for players on Friday. The team will fly to Kansas City on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work week is planned out accordingly because it\u2019s not the first game of the season mechanics that all of us have somewhat grown accustomed to, it\u2019s the first game being a Monday night game,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n

Payton, a detail aficionado, said he\u2019s thought about how to craft the team\u2019s schedule to prepare for Week 1. The Broncos are 3-0 on Monday Night Football and 10-2 when they have an extended week (more than six days between games) under Payton.<\/p>\n

Most of the team\u2019s starters will have gone more than three weeks without game action. Linebacker Alex Singleton said he\u2019s tried to use the extra days between the end of the offseason and Week 1 to prepare for Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Because the Chiefs are a divisional opponent, the game will be more chess than checkers, Singleton said. Coordinators could use the extra time to make slight tweaks to the game plan, while players could identify an opponent\u2019s tendencies on tape, or a formation giveaway could emerge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s exciting about this matchup is five years in a row we\u2019re getting the same matchup,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cThey know what we\u2019re going to do. We know what they\u2019re going to do. And so it\u2019s who is going to make those slight adjustments that they spent all offseason preparing for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver has also used the two weeks to prepare for the noise at Arrowhead Stadium. On Monday, Payton mentioned the crowd as one of the challenges of opening the season in Kansas City. Denver does have an experienced roster and ,perhaps most importantly for communication purposes in Week 1, returns all five starters on the offensive line\n<\/p>\n

Meinerz said the Broncos\u2019 non-verbal communication at the line of scrimmage will be key. He also said starting fast could help mitigate Arrowhead\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

The Broncos have spent the past two weeks preparing for an abnormal season opener. Come Monday night, we\u2019ll find out if the extra time was a hindrance or a help.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, the Denver Broncos started their season on \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d with what\u2019s referred to as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":994697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[3882,232,231,258,2426,7,929,926,9070,6,3887,11090,8403,1813,9],"class_list":["post-994696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-alex-singleton","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-football","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-nathaniel-hackett","tag-nfl","tag-quinn-meinerz","tag-recovery","tag-schedule","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117232411833774022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994696","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=994696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}