Coming off a disappointing 2025 season in which they went 6-11, marking their first finish under .500 in the Andy Reid era and just the second time they've missed out on the playoffs since his arrival in 2013, the Kansas City Chiefs are set to kick off what they hope will be a bounce-back 2026 campaign this Monday night with a Week 1 matchup against the rival Denver Broncos.
The biggest storyline surrounding the Chiefs this offseason, of course, has been the status of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee last December in a Week 15 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers. But barring some sort of late setback, the two-time NFL MVP is expected to take the field after sitting out the entire preseason for the first time in his career.
That may not be the case for starting left tackle Josh Simmons, however, as the 2025 first-round pick has been out of action since suffering a back injury midway through training camp. Reid said Tuesday that there's a "good chance" Simmons sits out and made a similar statement about starting strong safety Chamarri Conner, saying it "would be a stretch" for the fourth-year veteran to battle the Broncos. He was at least optimistic about free-agent addition Alohi Gilman, saying he believes the team's new free safety will "be ready to go."
As for the Broncos, do you know how many major injury concerns the defending AFC West champs are seemingly dealing with heading into the season opener? Zero. No, seriously. Zero.
Given their place on the schedule, neither Kansas City nor Denver is required to submit their first official injury reports until Thursday.
But if the Broncos' first practice of the week this past Monday is any indication, theirs may just end up being completely blank, given the fact that every single member of the 53-man roster participated after wide receiver/return specialist Marvin Mims Jr. (foot), linebacker Que Robinson (undisclosed), and tight end Adam Trautman (undisclosed) all returned after recently missing time.
Mims is easily the biggest contributor of that trio, as he's one of the top returners in the NFL, earning a Second-Team All-Pro selection as a rookie in 2023, a First-Team All-Pro selection in 2024, and leading the league in punt return yards a season ago. And the Oklahoma alum is a solid depth piece at wideout as well, with 98 receptions for 1,202 yards and eight touchdowns over the course of his three-year career.
Now, it's not as if Denver doesn't have any injured players, as offensive tackle Frank Crum (leg) and tight end Caleb Lohner (foot) are on short-term IR, while guard Nick Gargiulo sits on the reserve/PUP list as he continues to rehab the torn ACL that kept him out of the entire 2025 season.
The Broncos also have three players on season-ending IR in center Michael Deiter (quad), defensive end Matt Henningsen (Achilles), and linebacker Levelle Bailey (broken leg). There were four, but linebacker Drew Sanders (undisclosed) was waived with an injury settlement on Tuesday.
But let's not pretend these are big contributors, and if all were healthy, the only two who likely had any genuine shot at making the 53-man roster were Crum and Bailey.
We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that Denver will be missing outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper, who's started every single game for the team over the past three years, racking up 27.0 sacks in that stretch. This isn't an injury issue, however, as the sixth-year veteran will start the season on the commissioner's exempt list due to ongoing domestic violence charges, so the Broncos have known for quite some time that he wouldn't be available, as have the Chiefs.
Outside of Cooper, though, Kansas City is seemingly set to square off with a fully healthy Denver team, which is just absolutely absurd, as it's extremely rare for any franchise to enter a new season at full strength. We'll obviously know more once official injury reports are released, but if the Chiefs are to kick off this redemption season with a win, they'll get that victory against the best the Broncos have to offer.
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