The Kansas City Chiefs opened their 2026 campaign against the Denver Broncos, who many people were crowning AFC West winners before the season even kicked off. Well, the Chiefs proved there's a reason teams play the games, curb stomping the Broncos to the tune of a 31-10 final.
The Week 1 showdown gave Chiefs fans their first look at Kenneth Walker III in his new uniform, and he certainly didn't disappoint. In his debut, Walker racked up nearly 200 yards from scrimmage and found the end zone twice. It was the kind of performance fans won't soon forget and one that made Brett Veach look like a genius for bringing Walker to Kansas City.
On the other side of the field, it was also the first time people were getting a glimpse of Jaylen Waddle as a member of the Broncos. Denver traded for Waddle during the offseason, hoping that the addition of him to the offense would give Bo Nix another lethal threat to throw to. Maybe Waddle can still be that for Denver but he did not give the fan base much to cheer about in the opener.
Waddle finished his Broncos debut with just a single catch for two yards. He was targeted three times and had a key drop on third down that would have given Denver great field position had he hauled in the pass. It was a rough start for Waddle and right off the bat, the scales are tipping in Kansas City's favor because their key addition balled out and Denver's didn't.
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The obvious point is that it's only been one game and that's a very small sample size. Walker could easily regress to the mean while Waddle could end up being the game-changing receiver that the Broncos expected him to. Hopefully that doesn't happen but it's entirely possible.
That being said, we only have this one game to go off of and Walker's dominance against the team that ended the Chiefs' streak of nine consecutive division titles last year proves that K.C. is ahead of the curve here. The Chiefs went up against a team that many were picking to win not only the AFC West but the Super Bowl and punched them right in the mouth. Walker did a lot of the punching too.
There's still a lot of football to be played but after one game, the Chiefs showed why they're still very much capable of being the contenders we've grown accustomed to them being.
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