ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For months, the Broncos have maintained that last year's success has little to do with the upcoming season.
And with Denver's Week 1 matchup finally within sight, that mentality has accompanied the team into game week.
Asked on Monday about the Broncos' ability to knock the Chiefs from atop the division in 2025, guard Quinn Meinerz highlighted the task ahead rather than previous accomplishments.
"This is a very tough division," Meinerz said. "Every game is tough. … You kind of have to have short-term memory. You have to forget about what happened last season, because every season's completely different. We have a new team. They have a new team. The division's open for whoever to take at this point. It's early in the season, and in our divisional games, it's a lot about proving yourself as a team. That's something we have to do again this year. That's just kind of the nature of the beast of the NFL is everyone kind of resets and gets ready for the next season. I think we've done a good job resetting. We know they've done a great job as well. They're a really well-coached team. It's going to be AFC West football."
Asked a similar question, Head Coach Sean Payton acknowledged the Broncos' goal of improvement when he arrived in Denver in 2023 and the work that has taken place — but he ended his answer by turning the focus toward this week's game.
"It'll be a big challenge, especially with the crowd noise in Kansas City," Payton said.
As Payton referenced, the difficulty of this year's matchup includes preparing for the environment at Arrowhead. Payton mentioned the crowd noise on multiple occasions on Monday, and Meinerz acknowledged the Broncos' ability to handle that element is "certainly a factor" in the outcome of the prime-time game.
"The best thing is having a good operation in and out of the huddle, [and trying] to take advantage of those moments where the crowd isn't into the game," Meinerz said. "Sometimes, starting fast in a game can kind of keep the crowd quiet in the beginning. It's certain moments like that.
"… There's going to be moments where it's really loud, and that's where our non-verbal communication will come in handy. That's part of practicing with crowd noise and getting that operation figured out come game time."
While tangible factors — like crowd noise — will play a more significant role on Monday than previous results, inside linebacker Alex Singleton did indicate the familiarity between the two teams is "what's fun" about the Week 1 matchup. The Broncos have opened against non-division opponents in five of the last six seasons, and Denver hasn't started the season against a division opponent since 2023.
The Week 1 uncertainty doesn't completely vanish against a division opponent — in early September, Payton referenced the "wrinkles" that exist with each team — but there is a higher degree of familiarity.
"It's really playing this chess game," Singleton said. "Neither team is playing checkers anymore. … They know what we're going to do; we know what they're going to do. It's who's going to make those slight adjustments that they spent the offseason preparing for each other. … That's what I think makes this exciting and why it's going to be a fun Monday night."
READYING FOR WALKER
Kansas City's most notable offseason addition came as the Chiefs signed running back Kenneth Walker in free agency, and Denver will face the Super Bowl LX MVP on "Monday Night Football."
Walker has rushed for 1,000 yards in two of his four NFL seasons, and he tallied 417 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns on 74 touches during Seattle's three-game run to a Lombardi Trophy.
"I think he has really good contact balance [and] vision, with home-run speed," Payton said. "He's a heck of a football player."
Singleton said Monday the Broncos know they must be ready for a heavy dose of the run game, and he said that's where Denver's defensive focus begins each week.
"When you go get a back like that, it is saying to the league and the entire NFL, 'Hey, we want to run the ball. We're going to show the league that we can,'" Singleton said. "I think that's what they're going to come out and do. We're going to prepare for that, but like I said, they're going to have their trick plays, their special plays, their high red [zone], their low red [zone] — all that stuff where you see the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes magic. … We're going to prepare for it all, but an offense that can run the ball first makes the game really hard to play, so our first goal obviously is always going to be to stop the run."
