The Denver Broncos open the 2026 NFL season with the 15th-hardest strength of schedule, a middle-ground number that says their path is tougher than many teams but not among the league’s most punishing. Their opponents’ 2025 records add up to a.512 strength of schedule.
That ranking is drawing attention now because preseason schedule charts often become an early shorthand for who has the clearest road ahead, and fans searching for where to watch NFL games are also looking for the shape of the season itself. The strength-of-schedule ranking is built from 2025 records, so it is a snapshot of what opponents did last year, not a guarantee of what they will be when the games are played.
The rest of the AFC West lands in the same neighborhood of difficulty, though not all in the same slot. The Kansas City Chiefs sit fifth with a.536 mark, the Las Vegas Raiders are seventh at.529, and the Los Angeles Chargers are ninth at.522. That places all four teams above the Cleveland Browns, who have the easiest schedule at.429, while the Chicago Bears sit at the hardest end of the board with a.550 strength of schedule.
The Broncos’ ranking carries a wrinkle that keeps these numbers in perspective. They were also 15th last year, when the calculation was based on 2024 records, yet they finished 14-3 and claimed the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC. That is the part of schedule math that never sits still: it is useful for comparing one offseason to another, but it cannot capture how much a roster changes once the season starts.
That is why the Broncos’ 15th-place projection matters less as a verdict than as a reference point. It shows a schedule that sits around the league middle, with enough difficulty to matter and enough uncertainty to keep the final outcome wide open once the 2026 NFL season begins.
