A new AFC West pecking order, but the Broncos are eager to prove themselves all over

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos finally unseated the Kansas City Chiefs last season, dethroning Andy Reid's team after its eye-popping nine-year run atop the AFC West .

The Broncos may be the ones with the proverbial targets on their back for a change, but it's not like they're going to saunter into Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night for their showdown with the Chiefs to top off the NFL's opening weekend.

"The biggest thing going into each season is that you can’t remember,” All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz said. “You have to have short-term memory. You have to forget about what happened last season because every season’s completely different."

As his coach, Sean Payton, is fond of saying, you don't just pick up where you left off last season.

For a change, though, the division is coming for the Broncos, not the Chiefs.

Denver's 15-4 run last season ended four points shy of a trip to the Super Bowl after Bo Nix broke his right ankle against Buffalo in the divisional round. The Chiefs stumbled to a 6-11 finish and Patrick Mahomes tore ligaments in his left knee in December.

Both quarterbacks are slated to start Monday night.

The Broncos' first division title since 2015 was the culmination of a methodic return to relevance under Payton, general manager George Paton and the team's ownership that christened a new $175 million training facility this summer and is busy buying up land for a new downtown stadium they hope to open in five years.

The Broncos have a brutal six-game stretch to open the season and beating Mahomes at Arrowhead for the first time in eight tries would go a long way toward Denver defending its shiny new divisional crown.

“We have a new team; they have a new team,” Meinerz said. “... It's the nature of the beast of the NFL is everyone resets and gets ready for the next season. And so I think we've done a good job of resetting. We know that they've done a great job, as well.”

The AFC West has been Mahomes' personal playground for much of his career. He's 36-8 in the division, including 13-2 against both the Broncos and Raiders and 10-4 against the Chargers, who swept him last season.

Mahomes beat the Broncos the first 12 times he faced them, but he's lost two of the last three matchups with Denver and that would be a three-game skid if not for a blocked field goal by Kansas City as time expired two years ago.

Whether Mahomes will be as elusive and electric post-surgery is anyone's guess, but one certainty is this: his divisional opponents have been more competitive of late.

Mahomes was 1-3 against the division last season. Although he was 5-0 in 2024, three of those wins were by two points and the other two by seven. And he lost twice in 2024, to Las Vegas and Denver.

And now for the first time in his NFL career he's entering a season in which the Chiefs aren't the reigning division champs.

“I don't really hold much emotional attachment to that," Meinerz said. “We have to go and do it every single year. I look at it as individual things versus ‘The Chiefs have had it for 10 years and now we took it.’ I don't look at it through that lens. I look at it through each season.”

Playing a prime-time game at Kansas City to kick off the season, though, shows the Broncos are back as must-see TV.

“It's exciting,” Nix said. “It means you're in a very good spot as an organization. But it's also a great responsibility. You get put on 'Monday Night Football,' Week 1, it means you've got something to go out there and prove.”

Notes: The Broncos named nine captains, including newcomer Devon Key, their All-Pro special teams ace.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here