Broncos-Chiefs 2026 Week 1 MNF Recap: Are the Chiefs Back?

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2:39Jourdan Rodrigue:On the 40-yard line, needing a little bit less than one full yard to extend this drop. They go big again. Izudu's in the block. The Chiefs hand it off. Walker trying to get to the outside. Does so. Up to 45. Midfield. 45. And the Broncos point. 30, 25, and in, stays in bounds. 10, 5, touchdown! Kansas City on 4th down and 1. It's a home run, 60-yard run by Ken Walker III. Woo! That was Mitch Holtis on KFNZ. Yes, the first Kenneth Walker touchdown local radio call that we've had here on NFL Daily. But it won't be the last one in this show. I am here live after the game with my friend Jordan Rodrique.

3:29We wrapped up the regular season, rather the playoffs last year, Jordan, watching a career-defining and changing game by Kenneth Walker. And it somehow just feels right that we are wrapping up week one of the new season with him putting his stamp on what looks like it's going to be a fun era with the Chiefs.

3:49Jourdan Rodrigue:He was absolutely incredible for so many reasons I can't wait to get into. We're going to talk about what a disaster this was in both phases by the Denver Broncos. It's going to be a fun show tonight, Greg. Yeah, Kenneth Walker and how about Andy Reid going for it on fourth down? There was a couple smart decisions, I thought, early in that game by Andy Reid. Heck, let's talk about the start of the game. You know I'm into omens, right, Jordan? Yes, I do. Omen season is ending, unfortunately. Like, it's really about week one. this was the best game of omens of the season. Can I interest you in a two-part omen series?

4:25Jourdan Rodrigue:Yes, you can. Bo Nix's first drop back of the season, a sack. His second drop back of the season, a Chiefs rookie, R. Mason Thomas, gets to him on a pressure. And then another Chiefs rookie, Mansoor Delane, picks him off. That very next drive, as I mentioned, Andy Reid gets in his bag in terms of getting aggressive. It's a third and three call. And I really thought it was interesting. They give the ball to Kenneth Walker. He gets just one yard. It's fourth and two. Andy Reid's been so hesitant over the last few years to go for it on fourth down. But what does he do? He brings in the big man, Kyrus Tonga, a free agent pickup from the Patriots who also plays nose tackle.

5:06He comes in at fullback. He trusts Kenneth Walker. They get the fourth down. He gets another short yardage pickup later in that drive. And that sets up the ultimate good omen. for the Chiefs. This is all one big good omen smashed together for what I think is going to be a great Chiefs season. And yes, it's Patrick Mahomes scoring the first Chiefs touchdown of the year on the ground.

5:29Jourdan Rodrigue:Kelsey in an offset position. Now he shifts to a right slot. Mahomes in the pocket trying to keep the play alive. Moving left, scrambles, 10 for the five, diving for the end zone. Touchdown! Kansas City, nine months after ACL surgery. Patrick Mahomes runs it in from 15 yards out. And for Mahomes, his 20th rushing touchdown. Am I a softy for getting like chills there? Like, I love Patrick Mahomes. To see him come back like that and hear the local call, it's amazing. And my final word here on this is just like, that's it. The Omens have decided it. Patrick Mahomes is winning MVP. The Chiefs are winning the division like I had predicted, or at least that those look good after one week.

6:16I'll shut up now.

6:16Jourdan Rodrigue:Here's what I love the most about that opener. We talk about intention a lot with some of these really experienced head coaches and play callers and obviously Andy Reid and Eric Biennemi and Patrick Mahomes all reuniting here. We talk about sending a signal out or a statement of intent And that entire first scripted drive, a drive that coaches pre-designed based on what they believe the defensive opening tendencies will be, that entire one was so definitive in terms of who they feel, what they felt like they wanted to show us right away. And that was a lot of Kenneth Walker who took the majority of touches on that drive.

7:00Jourdan Rodrigue:Some really, really strong running early from him from a lot of different types of formations. And then Patrick Mahomes running the ball himself after the injury. And I knew it was a statement of intent the second, the first time he did it was called back for a penalty. And then they did it again. And I was like, oh, they wanted to do this the whole time. They've been planning to do this. it was just excellent, thoughtful, again, intentional play, at least on the Chiefs side. And to your point, Greg, I thought there was a lot to like out of this game for the Chiefs, including their rookie defensive players really stepping up and being disruptive early.

7:35Yeah. Look, the offense wasn't pretty in the first half. If anything, it felt like Mahomes needed to run too much. He ends up running seven times in this game. Other than that, I think includes the kneel downs, but he had 23 rushing yards. He got hit hard a couple times at halftime. He was something like 8 of 18 for 60-something yards. It was not looking pretty, but what a gift for him. Yes, to have the defense, which we'll get to, but to have this running game and to bully a Broncos defense that in the Vance Joseph era has been awesome. In the games where they have struggled, it has tended to be because teams have run all over them.

8:15and yeah, the Chiefs have struggled for years to get explosive pass plays. They got one tonight from Travis Kelsey, but how about you get your explosives in the running game with Kenneth Walker? You've been talking about this vision all season long and I think the offensive line, even without Josh Simmons, like Khalil Benson, the young player who played left tackle, had the holding call that took back that first touchdown, but overall they ran block, I thought, well, and Walker, more than anything, really took advantage of it.

8:42Jourdan Rodrigue:Ken Walker had 105 scrimmage yards of 182 net chief scrimmage yards at halftime. And then and he just kept going after that was even before the true explosives that he like, you know, he had the the fourth and one that was just exceptional. Really visual patient running from him to see the Broncos crash into the inside. We showed the highlight at the very top of the show. The Broncos defense on fourth down just like crashed into the middle to sell out against that inside run that you typically would see that the Chiefs themselves were sort of aligned in a way that showed that they were maybe going to inside run.

9:21Jourdan Rodrigue:Kenneth Walker hesitates for a minute, bounces outside, really just takes the arc all the way to the house in one of his many, you know, one of his couple explosive plays. Seeing explosive plays from a Chiefs running back was crazy, first of all. And then second of all, I like this addition and I have been saying this all offseason because the artistic nature of how Kenneth Walker runs. Yes, he is powerful. Yes, he runs with burst. He's a home run hitter as well. but the artistry with which he operates in the way that he runs, the stylistic way that he can look and align his body and change different leverage points and then just cut on a dime to find a crease that you just didn't even know was there.

10:05Jourdan Rodrigue:And he's creative about it. And he doesn't necessarily have to always stay in structure of what the blocking is supposed to look like or what the defense thinks the blocking will be. That is how Patrick Mahomes plays quarterback. It's not a one-to-one comp at all, But like, that's what Andy Reid is just so magical with is letting these guys be themselves and really kind of flex their creative creativity and the way that they can make things happen even outside of it, design or intent. So we're going to move off Kenneth Walker at some point. He was the key in the 30. Well, the Chiefs didn't, so.

10:38Yeah. Hey, Emma Johnson came in there. Little burst at the end. Yeah, look, look pretty good. He had two catches for 44 yards in this game, and I think he's going to be a nice backup for them for a day three guy. But look, they end up more than doubling the Broncos in yardage, 392 to 176, more than doubling them in first downs. They win 31 to 10 going away. They just pushed them around in the second half. Every week on this Monday night show, we're going to have a player of the week. So it is time. We can't wait any longer. It's time for the player of the week presented by Nationwide. And you mentioned the creativity.

11:10Let's get to the most creative Kenneth Walker touchdown of the night.

11:14Jourdan Rodrigue:And now the Chiefs go with Justin Fields in the lineup along with Mahomes. It's a single wing play. They toss it inside to Kenneth Walker. Touchdown! Kansas City! The Chiefs went to quarterbacks in a three-point stance. Patrick Mahomes was in a three-point stance behind the center. So was Justin Fields. And then they flip it inside to Ken Walker III. It's a single wing play for a touchdown. The Chiefs go back to the 1930s to get this touchdown. And it is 30-10 Kansas City. That's already one of my favorite calls of the season, too. What a great radio call that was. It was incredible by Mitch Holtis.

11:58Kyrie, start the list. We do calls of the year at the end. That's absolutely right there. I'm glad that Mitch described how cool that play was so that we don't even have to. because look, I say Andy Reid used to come out in week one with like some special sauce. I don't know if teams around the league are going to be copying that, but I'm sure Andy Reid's going to be playing off of that the rest of the year.

12:19Jourdan Rodrigue:He copied his own. It's his own play. He ran it in 2023. A man who covers a lot of the Chiefs scheme on the Chiefs beat had pointed this out and forgive me, please, for not being able to remember his first name to cite him properly. but oh my god it was like Andy Reid and Eric Bien-Ami back together with Patrick Mahomes putting him in the three-point the difference with this play that was different from that 2023 version was a second quarterback was in the mix also in a three-point stance play flows completely to the left it's a little flip pass to Kenneth Walker who just darts inside to the right stop it just stop it already and the reason I'm saying like he's got to come back to that at some point this year, he will come back with Justin Fields out there on the field and maybe Fields gets involved in the play.

13:10That was really cool. And just a few stats as we kind of move on from Walker. Yeah, it was the most rushing yards, I believe, by anyone, Kenneth Walker, in the Andy Reid era for a team total. It was the third most rushing yards by the Chiefs. It was 220 yards in the Andy Reid era. In the last two years combined, Jordan, they had two runs over 25 yards. Kenneth Walker had that tonight. So it just, it's just got to feel good for Mahomes to have such a great running back. And I know like rookie and early season, you know, early career Kareem Hunt was a very good runner, but it's not at this level.

13:50And that only lasted a couple of years and they've been searching. So it really gives them some dynamism as they go to improve their passing game throughout the course of the season, because there is stuff to work on there. That was the player of the week presented by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs. Nationwide is on your side. Let's pick on the Broncos defense a little bit, because like the Texans, like the Vikings defense for three quarters, some of these defenses that we expected to come into the season and just be awesome, struggled in week one. And yeah, what did you see out of Denver's defense that disappointed you?

14:28Jourdan Rodrigue:Well, they got ran all over up front, first of all. But second of all, they missed so many tackles, Greg, on the two touchdowns, the second two, the middle two touchdowns. It was Riley Moss missing tackles to help the play become a touchdown in the first place. It was missing tackles in space it was Travis Kelsey's explosive yards after the catch run in the second half missed tackles there it was just you know I'm on next gen and I'm monitoring these the whole game they count missed tackles and just to be clear next gen does a GPS tracker so some of the missed tackles that they're charting in real time are more proximity based like this defender may have been in the area it doesn't necessarily it's not able to reflect like actual contact or that that was the assignment so we'll go back and watch the tape for that but they're over 20 by the fourth quarter in terms of it I mean it was it was bad it was bad bad bad including including that proximity to the to the ball carrier stuff that still is bad even if it's not necessarily specifically a missed tackle um I was I was really disappointed I thought they started out playing really really well the Broncos they clearly were not going to let Patrick Mahomes passed the ball.

15:45Jourdan Rodrigue:He started the game with some like, what, 89 passing yards. There's 62 passing yards that he had at the half. And most of their offense was clearly built around Kenneth Walker in the run game and also passing. But then Kenneth Walker started to turn out some of these explosives. And again, just not being able to adjust to what the types of ways that he was running, the types of contact points that he was adjusting to create against the Broncos defense. and it just was really disappointing. I saw so much more out of this Chiefs pass rush being disruptive and active at the line of scrimmage that I expected to see out of the Broncos being disruptive at least along, you know, two-thirds of their pass rush and their front and I just didn't see it.

16:31Jourdan Rodrigue:And they just got pushed around and it was really startling to see that.

16:40How do you turn 16 games injury reports, team notes, betting lines, and matchup trends into one clear weekend preview. ChatGPT work can help. Give it the goal, plus real inputs like notes, files, data, and project plans. It can help turn them into an analysis tracker, deck outline, or workflow you can keep shaping. You stay in control reviewing the work and choosing the final result. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans. Football is the ultimate team game on any single play. It takes all 11 guys to execute it successfully.

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19:37It's week one, and look, the Chiefs famously hold one of the tougher training camps. It hasn't always equated to a fast start out of them, but they looked a little more ready for this moment than the Broncos, who also played more in the preseason than just about any team out there. So you can't just blame it on that. It was a wild environment. It's a young Chiefs team. you did feel like even though obviously some of the players they lost specifically in the secondary, McDuffie and Jalen Watson are good players. There's a youthful energy and there was young players on the defense that really played well.

20:13And yet like Mahomes looked pretty bad in the first half. I mean, like the interception was hard to figure. I was watching the Manning cast at the time and they honestly don't know what happened on that. Like Mahomes thought Xavier Worthy was going to go a certain direction probably and through it. But everything that they could tell by the route and the coverage, like they didn't know why Patrick Mahomes would do that. And they're always looking for a reason to defend Patrick Mahomes. But as he got into the game, you know, he started making better decisions. And you had the long play. And this is where you really knew it was over when Travis Kelsey is rumbling down the field for, what was it?

20:5659 yards, the third longest play of his career. Was that another Riley Moss missed tackle? No, that was that was 23 on the Broncos.

21:06Jourdan Rodrigue:It's 29 and 23. Yeah, it was rough. The Riley Moss missed tackle on the Rasheed Rice touchdown was even worse. But it was like I was like, oh, is Kelsey got to get there? Is he got to get there? That felt like the longest play I've ever watched in my entire life. Someone said on Blue Sky that it was like watching an offensive lineman scoop and try to score. I was like, okay, all right. That's a little much. To be fair, I think Travis Kelsey is moving as well as he moved a couple years ago. He's another guy who, as the season goes on, sometimes isn't moving as fast later in the season as he is in week one.

21:44He's moving fine. But yeah, he only had three catches in the end. He got one late, three for 71. He was their leading receiver. I mean, the wide receivers between Rasheed Rice and Xavier Worthy had eight combined targets for 37 yards. So yeah, they're going to need to figure out some things. But yeah, the Broncos couldn't really get to Mahomes because they were throwing the ball so quickly. They were really trying to prevent him getting hit. Like his time to throw for most of the game was like 2.3, 2.4. And look, if you can run against them, that's going to be a recipe for other teams. their schedule is very difficult.

22:15Let's talk about what we did like about the Chiefs defense. What's probably the number one thing you'll remember from this game, from this Chiefs defense?

22:23Jourdan Rodrigue:Probably our Mason Thomas. Just how active he was, young rookie, I believe a second-round pick for them. Just somebody who we just really were talking about needing to see more players along this defensive front, like really step up for Steve Spagnuolo, the defensive coordinator and for this group in general. And I thought our Mesa Thomas really set the tone quite well early on with how active he was against that really, you know, well-respected veteran Broncos offensive line too. And then it really carried through the fact that I saw Steve Spagnuolo playing, the amount of man he played early, first of all, the amount of blitzes he sent with, including with veteran players.