The first week of the NFL season is a liar, but want to know the honest truth?

Here is the Broncos’ big chance to go to Kansas City and not only burn what remains of Chiefs Kingdom to the ground, but scatter the ashes to the wind.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the outcome of a game between two AFC West rivals means more to the Chiefs than it does to Denver.

The Broncos will walk into Arrowhead Stadium like they own the joint, or at least the division. While Bo Nix can’t show you the advanced, next-gen metrics that conclusively prove he is a top 10 quarterback in this league, the very basic stat of 25 victories in his two NFL seasons is the foundation for the easy confidence in his stride as he enters the Denver huddle in this showdown against Kansas City.

“I’ve played a season opener before. I’ve played on ‘Monday Night Football’ before. And I’ve played in Kansas City at night before,” Nix said Wednesday.

This feels like Patrick Mahomes’ last stand.

That’s why if he can walk, the K.C. quarterback will play exactly nine months to the date when he shredded ligaments in his left knee in December.

Don’t know about you, but this ambition sounds a little desperate to me.

“Other than having a brace on his leg, everything looks normal with (Mahomes),” Chiefs coach Andy Reid told K.C. scribes paid to glorify the sweet smoky haze in the parking lot from slow-cooked ribs, the ceaselessly annoying Tomahawk Chop and all the things that make Arrowhead one of the few places as difficult to play as Denver.

Why rush the recovery timeline from a serious injury suffered by a two-time league MVP that the Chiefs have invested more than $500 million in to be the face of their franchise?

Kansas City simply cannot afford to lose this game.

Even with Mahomes at the controls, the K.C. offense has been in steady decline for nearly three years.

After losing the last shreds of their aura of invincibility when Philadelphia left the Chiefs naked and exposed in Super Bowl LVII, the football dynasty built by Reid fell in 2025 with the icky thump of a 6-11 record that was so loud the aftershocks were felt throughout the NFL.

Arrowhead is literally losing its reputation as a nearly impossible place to win. During the nine seasons prior to 2025, the Chiefs’ record at home was a daunting 71-21, including the playoffs.

But last season? Kansas City got beat in its own backyard four times, including a 20-13 victory by Denver on Christmas that probably deserves an asterisk more than a bow because Mahomes was physically unable to participate.

Now that everybody who’s anybody in the NFL watches the nearly worthless August exhibitions in a ballcap instead of strapping on a helmet, Week 1 of the NFL regular season has become a fumblepalooza of bad football.

It’s a full-dress rehearsal that counts in the standings.

It’s a rip-off of fans who plunk down their hard-earned money for tickets to watch big, sweaty dudes knock the rust off and stumble around the field, looking for their mojo. But that’s another rant for another day.

The Broncos are a better football team than Kansas City.

The Chiefs, however, are the more desperate bunch.

And few things in sports are more dangerous than now-or-never desperation. 

In a quote that went viral no more than 52 seconds after the words left his mouth, Denver wide receiver Courtland Sutton said his friend Nix is so anxious to pounce after breaking his ankle in the NFL playoffs that the quarterback reminds him of a caged animal.

“He’s like a … a mountain lion in a zoo that’s just pacing,” Sutton said.

Say what?

“I saw a mountain lion in the Colorado zoo. He was just pacing back and forth,” Sutton added. “I was like: ‘Y’all don’t want that boy to get out. It’s not going to be good.’”  

Nix is a young lion from the Rocky Mountains.

Mahomes, however, is a wounded bear, stuck behind a rock and a hard place, with no choice except to fight his way out.

Nix is ready to roar.

But beware the wounded bear.