Denver Broncos Matchup with the Chiefs Just Got Even Better...

Oh my goodness, he's Michael Darcy, the guy we all love to hate. Before the first Broncos-Chiefs game this year, I talked to Cole from How About Them Chiefs, and he's too nice, and I think it jinxed us, so we had to bring back the guy who stirs the pot, we absolutely hate, he's Michael Darcy, but we love him. How you living, big dog? How you feeling about this game? Life's great. The Chiefs are atop of the AFC West. Listen, this is going to be, I think, the game that I had circled on my calendar weeks ago Because, I mean... Outside of playing you guys week one, we haven't really played a lot of teams that would really invoke a lot of fear. Going into week one, there were so many questions that the Chiefs had to answer. What would Kenneth Walker look like? We found out what Kenneth Walker looked like, and the Broncos found that out as well. I think this game, it's interesting because I watched Denver. Denver seems every single week to just find a way to win. It doesn't look pretty. The offense might be stale. I think I saw something that Bo Nix's average depth of targets. Like, less than a Subaru or something along those lines. Like, Bo Nix is somehow finding a way to orchestrate the offense to do enough to win. And you've played a lot of dogs on your schedule. You've played the Rams. You've played the Seahawks. You've played us. Like, you've gone through some difficult games. And to your credit, you've only lost two of them. So, going into this game, the Chiefs are 5-1. And I believe, are you guys 4-2? 5-2. Yeah, 5-2. Yep. So, yeah, we win this. We're back at square one. Yep, man. Absolutely. We're back at square one and then things get really interesting on the back end of the schedule because we would have, have the tiebreaker because like, not only did we beat the Seahawks, we also made it to the red zone several times. Um, but Hey, that's not for everybody. No, no knock on Mahomes, okay Uh, yeah, no knock on Mahomes there. All right. So let's talk about like, I, I truly think y'all are fraudulent and I just gotta tell you straight to your face, man, that like, yes, you were five and zero, but if you take us out of the mix, those, those five teams have a combined six wins going into overtime with the team that does a fire sale in the Colts. What do you actually take out of, of those first five wins in particular? It's, it's hard because you can't really pick who you play, especially when the Chiefs and Broncos are playing most of the same teams, just in a different order. Like you guys are going to play the very same teams that we've started our season off with. And we're going to find out a lot more about this Chiefs team as we go on in the season. But, I mean, you can't really pick who you play and when you play them. And I thought that the Chiefs showed an ability offensively to move up and down the field. Outside of the game against Seattle, the offense has been kind of carrying the load. And now defensively, they've had some injuries and some guys that maybe haven't played up to par. Obviously, there's some concerns defensively with the pass rush and Chris Jones, who's not really been the guy that he's been in previous years. But all things considered for this team to be five and one after a year where they were six and 11 and had so many holes going into this season, I feel like they're not super far off from where I thought they were going to be. I picked the Broncos to win week one. I look like a fool after what we saw on that Monday night football game. But overall, I think the Chiefs kind of have done what they were supposed to do, and that's take care of inferior opponents. That's exactly what they wouldn't have done last year. So it's like, it's a different team this year, but I also don't know how to gauge how good they are because, okay. Yeah. They lost to Seattle at home, you know, or I guess they lost to Seattle on the road against the team that was three and three with a defense that was fired up to beat their former guy. So I guess like, it feels like a lot of chiefs fans are like, Hey, this is what we expected. Like we expected to win the division again. And I guess like zooming all the way back. Cause we haven't, haven't talked like in what world did you I truly think you were going to win the division when you weren't on pace to make the playoffs even before Mahomes got hurt. He's coming back after this injury. You lose Trent McDuffie. You lose Chanel. You lose Jalen Watson. You lose Brian Cook. They're all starting at other places. And then your left tackle goes AWOL and you got an undrafted rookie free agent. And yes, you added Kenneth Walker. But like, where did this crazy hope come from for like that you would actually improve? I think the hope came from a... They revamped Andy Reid offense, the addition of Kenneth Walker, which I still think after the game in Seattle is going to be one of the best moves that's been made in the past couple of off seasons. Just, I mean, I think even after that game in Seattle, he still has more collective rushing yards than that entire team does. So yes, was it frustrating to see the Chiefs lose in that fashion? Yes, it was. But I think the optimism comes from having Patrick Mahomes back and healthy and, and, and having a running game now that can kind of take some pressure off of the receivers. But defensively, I think the Chiefs are really just banking on their coaching staff, whether it's Steve Spagnuolo or Dave Merritt to develop guys in the secondary. I think the way that things kind of operate in Kansas City is as long as you have Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and Steve Spagnuolo to kind of craft that game plan and keep the culture, you're always going to have a chance to win. And I think you're seeing a team that maybe doesn't have more talent. I would still say the Broncos have more talent on paper than the Kansas City Chiefs, but I don't think that has necessarily mattered in the past. I mean, we can go back. multiple years where the Broncos have had a better roster, but you're just not better at the most important position. And sometimes that really is all it takes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I props to you for saying that about, cause I agree that when you look at this, I just feel like the Broncos have edges all over the place. And even with like, do you think Mahomes is his old self, or do you see cracks in the armor? Cause to me, I haven't been impressed, but I feel like, man, if you didn't get Kenneth Walker, this might actually be the worst offensive football. I actually think that Patrick Mahomes has done a very good job of delegating his role. I think he could still be the guy that, because like we've seen moments. We saw when Tyquan Thornton was out there and stretching the field, you saw the deep connection. You saw Mahomes find, you know, whether it was Tyquan Thornton or Rasheed Rice when he's out there on the field, which Rasheed Rice has missed like the last two or three weeks. He should be back for this game on Sunday. So you're getting him back. You're going to get Jalen Moore, the right tackle back, which is a big thing because he was dealing with a concussion. I think that Mahomes has been old Patrick Mahomes. He just hasn't had to necessarily carry the entire load because of Kenneth Walker, but I'd also point and say, look at the wide receiver room. The wide receivers are bad. They're bad. They're injured. And what he is doing with the guys that are there. I think the chiefs have the worst wide receiver room in the NFL. And if it wasn't for Patrick Mahomes, they would be the worst offense in the NFL. Yeah. A hundred percent. So Kenneth Walker, I, Had convinced myself like the Broncos were smart that they didn't get him and he blew me away and I was wrong, but I guess maybe I'm not wrong. Do you think he can keep this up for an entire playoff push knowing that right now he's on pace to have double the amount of touches he's ever had at any other point in his career and he has only played one 17 game season his whole career and that was as a splitting carries. Do you realistically think he can maintain this workload? The answer to that is no. And I would be shocked if he did. I'm a little interested because, you know, for the Broncos fans that maybe don't check out the channel all the time, we have Damian Williams on the show every week and we're kind of talking to him about the workload and how can Kenneth Walker sustain this? And he basically said that and he was there at training camp, but like in training camp, Andy Reid likes to push guys to their limit to see what they can take in season. And that's. That can be an interesting method because then you're putting more tax on them in July and in early August. And then when they get to the season, maybe they're a little bit more banged up, but it could also just be conditioning for the season. And so far, the workload for Kenneth Walker has been ramped up and we've never seen it like this. And so every single time he takes the field and takes a snap, I'm like, listen, we are one big hit away from this offense looking drastically different. I think you've got a guy that they drafted in the fifth round in Emmitt Johnson out of Nebraska who can be... That change of pace back, they've had him in on third down. I think as you see maybe them go on in the season, you'll see Kenneth Walker go from having like 25 touches, 20 touches to like 10 to 12 touches and sprinkling more Emma Johnson. I mean, to kind of circle back, they can't use him the way that they're using him for a 17-game season because he can't touch the ball over 500 times. It's just like he's going to die. You can't expect any running back to do that and sustain a full 17 game season, especially when your bye week has already happened. Yeah, it was super early bye. Yeah. The one thing I will say that has given me like panic is he just never seems to take a clean shot either. So I don't see a catastrophic like leg injury because I just feel like guys are always just bouncing off of him and he's so shifty. And so is it like a soft tissue thing? But I don't see, you know, like a scatback. You're like at any time he could be done. You just don't see... Kenneth Walker taking those kind of hits, so that should give you a little confidence that it's conditioning-wise an absolute dog, and I feel like now there's a ton of talk in Broncos country about should the Broncos try to go out and get Jonathan Taylor, because you do see what a running back does, because it's lifted that entire offense. What's the deal with Simmons, and tell me about that saga. That's the million dollar question, Ben. And that's something that I've tried to pry around and no one really wants to talk about it. And guys that are at the station have kind of pried around and no one in one Arrowhead Drive wants to answer about it. I'll say this. You saw the report come out from whether it was Mike Garafolo or Ian Rapoport who had it first. Josh Simmons was asked to leave a meeting after he had his legs up on the table. The way that the Chiefs have structured their organization, you don't find out about this stuff unless Andy Reid wants He wants you to find out about it. And, you know, I think that's very, you know, it's where Sean Payton and Andy Reid are different. Sean Payton will kind of call a guy out in a press conference. Andy Reid will never do that. He will fall on the sword and protect guys even longer than he should. But I think the Josh Simmons report that came out basically told everybody that they're done with his crap. I don't know what exactly it is. They put him on IR with a back injury. And I still think he has a back injury. Like he has the bulging disc in his back and the Chiefs had their head athletic trainer, Rick Burkhalter, come out and talk about how. You know, they tried ramping him up and then he wasn't able to go. And maybe, you know, he believes something different about his injury than the Chiefs do. I don't know what the disconnect is, but I will say this. They put him on IR. I would be absolutely shocked if we ever saw Josh Simmons play this season. And truthfully, Ben, I don't know if we'll ever see him in a Chiefs uniform again. Okay, so to that end, the fact that the last Super Bowl you lost was because the team was incompetent in finding protection for Mahomes. I'll admit, I think he's as good, if not better, than Brady. They've never gotten him a wide out. Do you join a bunch of Chiefs kingdom who wants to get Veach out of here? Because I think it's negligence at best how little they've done to build around Patrick Mahomes. It's interesting because I understand the thought process behind And I think... There's a lot of Chiefs fans that are like, fire Brett Veach, fire Brett Veach, fire Brett... Okay. Okay, you want to do that? Who you want to bring in? Like, I think that's always the first question to let's fire this guy. Okay, what is your response to the firing? I would push back and I'd say this. When you pay somebody like Patrick Mahomes, the money that you are paying him, and the Denver Broncos are going to be in this situation with Bo Nix. You are expecting your quarterback to elevate the talent around him. And the Chiefs, very similar to what they've done with Patrick Mahomes and his contract, you're paying Chris Jones a top five cap hit in the NFL, and he's not been good. He's not been good this season. And so when you've invested in Chris Jones, when you've invested in Patrick Mahomes, you can't invest in having a number one wide receiver like a Justin Jefferson. You're going to have to take some sacrifices. And so I actually think that the Chiefs have tried, whether it's with going out in the draft or free agency and signing offensive linemen or going out in the draft and drafting wide receivers. They've drafted wide receivers. They just haven't hit. They haven't hit at the level that they need to hit. Well, that's Veach then, dude. I mean, it's definitely Veach to a certain extent, but how much of it is there may be a disconnect between what Andy Reid and Brett Veach want? I think the way that the Chiefs think about this is we're going to throw our draft picks, throw our financial dollars on the defensive side of the ball, because if our defense is stout, we know 15 can get us there. And historically speaking, I know that all this fire Brett Veach stuff, they have won a Super Bowl with far less talent in the wide receiver room than they currently have, which is insane. Yeah, that's a very good point. All right, let's go injury report. What are you hearing this week with the new, the Mancer DeLa, I don't know his name. I don't want to, yeah, yeah. He's a dog picked off Bo Nix first, first throw of the game. What is he playing? How about Rashee? How about, how about your left, right tackle? It's interesting. I think, I don't know what's going on with DeLayne because that happened earlier today. So we don't know why Mancer DeLayne was limited, but also I think you're going to see Rashee Rice who was limited today. I think he's going to try to go. I'd be surprised if he didn't push it to play on Sunday. And I do expect the right tackle, Jalen Moore, to be back. But you're not going to see Josh Simmons. He's on IR. He's definitely not going to play. Let's do a quick matchup breakdown brought to you by DraftKings Sports. I'd like to see Delane out there. Truthfully, I think the question will be whoever Denver has in the slot, whether it's Jalen Waddle or Troy Franklin or someone along those lines. Going to eat Snead up, boy. That's going to be the question. What happened to him? He fell off a dump. He's got to be hurt, right? Because they were just picking on him over and over and over in that game. He's just got the knees of a 45-year-old. And he had them in Tennessee. And truthfully, the fact that Tennessee could not get anything out of him and the Chiefs have gotten something out of him is impressive nonetheless. But he doesn't really practice throughout the week because he's dealing with a knee injury. It's been like this since 2023. He's had bad knees since 2023. The fact that he's out there regardless in the role that he is in, I mean, that is like a Steve Spagnuolo issue. And you saw against JSN in Seattle, he had a bunch of snaps at the beginning and then you kind of didn't see as much of what Jerry has seen. It was monster Delane. Yeah. Wow. Huh? All right. What do you, what's your chiefs win this game? If Broncos win this game, if The Chiefs win this game if they're able to sustain longer offensive drives. The question in this game, and I know that it might be different in Denver. It might be a different perspective. I don't think that Denver can do to the Chiefs defensively what Seattle did. I don't think you guys have the ability to stop Kenneth Walker the same way that Seattle does. I don't think that necessarily you can't stop Kenneth Walker. It's just not going to be as easy. I think you're going to have to sell out. You're going to put guys in the box. And one stat that we've mentioned a lot on the pregame show over, you know, my channel is that I think the Broncos lead the NFL in missed tackles. That's something against Kenneth Walker. You cannot fail to bring K-9 down. So I think the Chiefs will win this game if the wide receiver step up, because I expect Denver to say, we're not going to get beat by Kenneth Walker. We're not going out like we did in week one. And if that happens, I'm looking at you, Xavier Worthy. I'm looking at you, Cyrus Allen and Jalen Royals, and whether it's Andrew Armstrong or Justin Watson. I mean, the fact that we're talking about Justin Watson in 2026 is a crime against humanity, but I think it's going to have to be a game where the wide receiver step up. And of course you guys are likely getting Pat Surtain back. So that's great for us. But I think the wide receivers are going to have to, you know, make things easier on the running game and obviously protect Patrick Mahomes. Like we didn't face Jonathan Cooper in week one and Jonathan Cooper allows Nick Bonito to be better, you know, Alan to be better. And if you cannot protect 15, I don't care what happens with the running game and the receivers. It's not going to matter. Yeah. Well, one thing I'll tell you, man, is I think Chiefs fans, if you're walking into this game thinking that you're going to run all over the Broncos again, one of the advanced analytics from week one that drives me nuts is that the Denver Broncos actually had the best yards before contact in the NFL that entire week here. The issue was, like you said, it was 25 missed tackles, and They've righted that ship already. So if you take away the missed tackles from that game, they were schemed up to stop Kenneth Walker. They just couldn't get him to the ground. And it seems as if every single defender on the Broncos has taken that personally, saying they all want to puke when they watch the film from week one and they've kind of shrugged it off. And I think Sean Payton didn't run his training camp like Andy Reid did this year where he gasses him up. And so that was the first time I'd... Brought dudes to the ground and they couldn't do it. And I think that changes this week. And that is your DraftKings Sports Matchup Breakdown. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DenverBen. New DraftKings Sportsbook customers can spend $5 and get $200 in bonuses, plus three months of league pass on them. That's code DenverBen. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Give me your score prediction and plug your channel, big dog. This is going to be, I think, a classic AFC West matchup. And I think I changed my final score prediction based on the result of last week. I think if the Chiefs would have gone into Seattle and took care of business, even if it was close, they wouldn't have been as motivated going into Denver with probably the division, not on the line, but at least things are back to square one. I think the Chiefs are going to win this game in an ugly, I'm feeling like 23 to 17. I think it's going to be a game that kind of goes down to the wire. I think the Chiefs offense bounces back. Still struggles offensively, but has a couple of big plays here and there. It's going to be, can Le'Jarius Sneed step up if he's out there? And what does Jalen Waddle do? What is, you know, Bo Nix look, does Bo Nix take shots over the middle of the field? Does he get more aggressive? Can the chiefs defense pressure what they did to Denver in week one? The chiefs had four sacks against Bo Nix in week one. They did it against Denver. They did it against the chargers. They haven't had a sack against anybody else. It's been four against the Broncos, four against the chargers and that's it. Yeah, man. At home, he just doesn't get pressure at home. That just doesn't happen. Yeah, I think, man, I think that the next time Andy Reid beats Sean Payton in Denver will be the first time. So give me Denver Broncos 20, the Kansas City Chiefs 13, and we won the AFC West and we're not giving it back. Darcy, where can they go? Talk that smack. You guys could find me on YouTube at KC Sports Report. We've got Damian Williams that comes on the channel each and every single week during the football season. We got live shows like three days a week. Daily content dropping with pre-records. And then, as Ben talked about earlier, I work at Sports Radio 810 WHB in Kansas City and kind of dip my toe into that water. So you can find me on Twitter at TheMichaelDarcy and just over on YouTube at KCSportsReport. Bro, you didn't say anything inflammatory. I'm worried they're going to like you. This is not good. They never have and they never will. Say something mean about Bo Nix. I mean... I think the play kind of speaks for itself. I think Ryan Fitzpatrick did that for me. He's disrespecting the game of football by his competitiveness. And he had a better game against the team when he did that. If you had the chance to go right now and pick between, obviously, age. Going back to the prime, if you could have Ryan Fitzpatrick or Bo Nix, who would you take? Oh, Bo Nix in a minute, in a second. Okay, okay. I'd take Bo Nix and I'd have a bulging disc like Simmons. It feels like Bo Nix is basically a new souped up version of Tim Tebow without a playoff win. Oh my gosh. No, no, no. He's got a playoff win. He's got a playoff win. Yeah. He's an ankle break away from being a Super Bowl champion and you're going to find out a hard way. All right. They hate you now. You're the best. All right. Thanks, Darcy.