The Chiefs’ Biggest Matchup on Each Side of the Ball Against the Broncos

The Chiefs' Week 8 trip to Denver is as big a mid-season game as Kansas City has played in recent memory.

According to The Athletic’s 2026 NFL Simulator, the Chiefs’ odds of winning the AFC West skyrocket to 84 percent with a win over the Broncos. With a loss, those odds drop to 48 percent, and the race likely stays neck and neck until the end of the season.

The Broncos will be a desperate opponent, which is always a scary situation for a team like Kansas City. In the same vein, head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo understand the magnitude of the game, so they likely will not hold back either.

Here are the two biggest matchups the Chiefs could exploit to take complete control of the AFC West.

Offense: Kenneth Walker vs. the Broncos’ run defense

The Chiefs found out last week what happens when an opponent shuts down its rushing attack. It may have been a matchup issue, and no defense in the league may be better suited to shut down Kenneth Walker than the Seattle Seahawks. Slowing him down is much easier said than done.

With the run game not working, Reid handed it to Kenneth Walker just 14 times, even though it was a tight ballgame for most of the contest. They got away from many of the under-center formations that had been working.

Walker finished with 36 yards, a season low by far. That led Patrick Mahomes to attempt 33 passes in a predictable game plan that Seattle had no trouble figuring out, and it visibly frustrated Mahomes and the Kansas City offense.

Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph will surely not deploy the same strategy he did in Week 1, when the Chiefs scored 31 points and Walker ran for 173 yards. That said, the Broncos are the league's 28th-ranked rushing defense. Walker forced 14 missed tackles in that Week 1 game, and the tackling woes have continued for Joseph’s defense.

Denver leads the league in missed tackles with 60 through seven games. There will be adjustments, but this may simply be a great matchup for the Kansas City offense. Walker is still second in the NFL in rushing yards, and he should pick up right where he left off before Week 7.

Defense: The Chiefs’ pass rush vs. the Broncos’ offensive line

This matchup is a similar theme. The Chiefs got after the quarterback against Denver in Week 1, but they couldn’t do it at all against the Seahawks.

While Kansas City’s defense still ranks among the league’s best in pressure rate, they are second-to-last in total sacks with eight. Oddly enough, they have two games with four sacks and four games where they were completely blanked. Luckily for the Chiefs, one of those four-sack games came against the Broncos and Bo Nix.

Nix has been sacked only four times in the six games since, but he has performed poorly when pressured, which clearly plays into what Kansas City’s pass rush has actually been able to accomplish.

According to PFF, when kept clean, Nix has six touchdowns and one interception. When pressured, he has one touchdown and two interceptions. When pressured, he has six more turnover-worthy plays, a quarterback rating 53.2 points worse, and gets the ball out nearly a full second slower.

Many of those poor numbers have come against the blitz. Nix has been blitzed on 90 dropbacks this season, averaging just 4.1 yards per attempt with a 46 percent completion rate, and he has been sacked three times in those instances.

With so much riding on this game, Spagnuolo could unleash some of his patented exotic blitzes. The biggest question marks are how creative he is with his calls and whether Chris Jones can finally get going, or whether it will once again be the George Karlaftis show, with a splash of pressure from R Mason Thomas.

If Kansas City can get back to pressuring Nix, the offense may not need its best day to win. Keeping Denver’s offense stuck where it has been all season, 30th in total offense and 25th in scoring, is the number one key to this game.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google