The Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos will kick off the 2026 season’s first “Monday Night Football” on Sept. 14, ESPN announced Tuesday — though the league has not yet announced the location of the game.
The Broncos, who finished 14-3 last season and captured the No. 1 seed in the AFC, have won three straight games against the Chiefs and four out of the last five in the series. Denver won the division after nine straight seasons of Kansas City dominance.
The last team other than the Chiefs or Broncos to win the AFC West was the 2009 San Diego Chargers.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes missed two of those Chiefs losses last season, including a Week 17 matchup that came after the two-time MVP quarterback suffered a torn ACL. The biggest question for this Week 1 matchup will be whether Mahomes, who had surgery on his knee in the middle of December, will be ready to make his return.
“I wanna be ready for Week 1,” Mahomes said in January. “That’s my goal … to play in that Week 1 (game) and have no restrictions.”
Kansas City finished 6-11, falling short of a playoff berth last season for the first time since 2014, while Denver fell to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
The Broncos are 3-0 on “Monday Night Football” since Sean Payton became the team’s head coach in 2023, including a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 last season.
Their Week 1 game will air on ABC/ESPN at 8:15 p.m. ET. On Monday, the league announced that the Dallas Cowboys will play the New York Giants the day before in the first “Sunday Night Football” game of 2026, while the Buffalo Bills will take on the Detroit Lions on “Thursday Night Football” on Sept. 17 in Week 2.
The NFL will release its full schedule on Thursday.
The Mahomes factor
The NFL’s decision to put the Chiefs in prime time for Week 1 is interesting, given Mahomes’ injury timeline and the league’s previous choices for the team’s first game.
If Mahomes had not been injured late last season, the Chiefs figured to be a good candidate to face the Los Angeles Rams on Friday, Sept. 11, in Melbourne, Australia. The Chiefs are a global brand, and they’ve also raised their hand to be involved as often as possible when the league takes games overseas.
However, with Mahomes’ availability in doubt, the league chose the San Francisco 49ers as the Rams’ opponent. Because of that, it seemed reasonable that the Chiefs might not have prime-time matchups early, just in case Mahomes is not ready to play.
This announcement seems to counter that. Yes, Mahomes will have as many days as possible to recover with the Chiefs getting the final game of Week 1 on Monday night. But the Chiefs-Broncos kicking off the season? That’s a marquee matchup that loses a lot of sizzle if Mahomes is out.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, general manager Brett Veach and even Mahomes have been steadfast in their messaging that Mahomes is ahead of schedule in his recovery while aiming to avoid missing any games. Based on Tuesday’s news, the NFL seems to believe them as well. — Jesse Newell, Chiefs staff writer