Chiefs On SI Mailbag: How Good Was the Chiefs' Defense in Victory Over Broncos?

The Kansas City Chiefs opened their season with a dominant win over the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, carried by an electric performance from new running back Kenneth Walker III and a suffocating day from the Chiefs' defense, holding the Broncos to just 10 points.

Every week for the Chiefs On SI mailbag, we take your questions from Twitter/X and Bluesky, and considering the concerned tone of last week's questions, this edition should be a lot more fun. I'm going to combine some questions to try to answer as many as possible. Let's get into it.

With Kahlil Benson showing off with just one pressure allowed, do you think he and Josh Simmons can be our franchise tackles of the future after this season? -@zandersahlia.bsky.social
When Simmons comes back, do we see Benson snatch the RT position from Jaylon Moore? -@ChiefsThumbsUp

First, I'll share my official stance on Kahlil Benson's performance on Monday night: He played one heck of a game in an outrageously difficult circumstance. Benson deserves a ton of credit for holding up under those conditions, and his path to the starting lineup has been unprecedented.

Also—not "but," just "also!"—I don't think the Chiefs asked Benson to play in the same way they ask Simmons (or typically Moore) to play. The offense operated as a run-heavy team with a quick passing game that kept Benson from being tested as severely as he otherwise would have been. That was clearly the right strategy against the Broncos, and Week 1 probably won't be the only time we see the Chiefs operate that way.

My best bet for now is that Moore keeps the right tackle job when Simmons returns, leaving Benson to keep a firm hold on the swing-tackle position for at least the first several weeks. If Moore struggles while Benson continues to stack good practices, I could see the Chiefs revisiting that battle down the road.

For the long-term future, Benson has certainly made a case! Fellow UDFA rookie Diego Pounds should be in the mix as well, but he's been a pure left tackle while Benson has stayed on the right side (until Monday night). So far, Benson has shown that he at least deserves to be in the conversation.

Would love to know if the secondary really played as good as the initial viewing suggests. Granted, we got pressure from the front four and Nix didn't handle it well. Was the back-end as good as we hope, or were the Broncos just terrible? -@kcmarshall.bsky.social
Can we give some love to the defense? Especially how the young bucks performed. Nix was in a blender and their O-line is top-half in the league. Is Spags about to eat with these horses, or is this just Denver [redacted]-ing the bed? -@cheezeitz_dave

These questions combine perfectly because it's just impossible to talk about the secondary and the pass rush as separate entities in this game. The secondary held their own without Chamarri Conner and with only three snaps from Mansoor Delane, leaving Jaden Hicks and Kristian Fulton to take on huge responsibilities, and the secondary never broke. There was never a spirit-crushing 3rd-and-long conversion and never a feeling that a backup defender was going to be picked on throughout the game.

With that being said, I'm sure Bo Nix would've had a much better night if he would have had more time to hang in the pocket, or if the Chiefs had to blitz to create pressure. Those were issues last season, and the 2026 Chiefs seem to be in a much better place from a pass-rushing perspective. By getting to Nix with four (or even three!) rushers, KC keeps a numbers advantage in the secondary. By bringing blitzes by choice rather than by necessity, quarterbacks can't get comfortable in their expectations. Coverage and pass rush go hand-in-hand, and I was impressed on both fronts.

How surprised were you about how easily the Chiefs dominated and easily disposed of the Broncos? -@MrEd315

Pretty surprised! I understood why the Chiefs were narrow favorites in this game, but a complete drubbing was not what I expected. I thought the Chiefs would get a spark from Walker and some clear athletic rejuvenation on defense, but I, frankly, expected better from Denver. Spagnuolo made new offensive coordinator Davis Webb look like the first-time playcaller he is, and the Broncos' tackling was abysmal.

Do the Chiefs make a trade for a wide receiver? -@DDDereKC

While it's not ideal that the Chiefs' wide receivers combined for 37 total yards on Monday, I feel the same about the WR room now as I did before the season began. As I mentioned earlier, a run-heavy, quick-passing game was the right call for the Broncos, and we'll just have to adjust our concern levels as the season goes on. I would've been more aggressive about a receiver addition this offseason, but the team made the choice to ride with Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Royals and Cyrus Allen. If a "new" player gets added to that room within the next few months, I'd guess that KC's first call would be to Tyreek Hill.

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