The Denver Broncos looked to be building something special under head coach Sean Payton. After moving on from Russell Wilson , they made the playoffs in back-to-back years, with the 2025 season seeing them win the AFC West with 14 wins.
Opening this year with an MNF game against the Kansas City Chiefs seemed like the perfect way for them to continue their domination. However, a blowout loss has led a former quarterback to call out both the head coach and the new offensive coordinator, Davis Webb .
A team that ranked at number four on PFN's Defense Impact Metrics gave up 31 points. After recording 68 sacks last season, they could only get to Mahomes on two occasions.
On the other hand, their offensive line crumbled, with some questionable playcalling leading to just 10 points over the course of the game. Bo Nix threw for 131 yards on less than 5 yards per attempt, while the team totaled just 61 rushing yards.
As a result, Ben DiNucci , who now works with CBS Sports, called out essentially the entire Broncos organization for a lackadaisical Week 1 performance.DiNucci spent the 2023 season on Denver's practice squad and rejoined the practice squad on January 19, 2026, two days after Nix fractured his right ankle.
"I was utterly shocked," he began by first addressing the defense. "The calling card for this Denver Broncos defense, especially last year, was the physicality and the identity they play with on defense. And what did we see tonight? We saw missed tackles, we saw missed assignments. It just looked like they played a step behind the Kansas City Chiefs tonight."
But his problems weren't limited to one side of the football. Instead, he called out most of the coaching staff for failing to put together a solid game plan on both sides of the field, resulting in a humiliating blowout to start the year.
"I question Sean Payton, I question Davis Webb, I question Vance Joseph. You have all offseason to get ready to go for this game. A divisional opponent to open the season on Monday Night Football, and you lay an egg? It didn't look like they were interested."
To that point, it was an all-around sloppy game on the field from the players, too, and DiNucci wasn't letting them escape blame either. "Nobody was flying around, you had guys dropping the ball on offense, there were penalties inside the five-yard line. It was just very uncharacteristic football from the Broncos."
It remains to be seen whether this was a blip in Week 1 or a recurring pattern for the team this season. But after their expectations had continued to increase over the last few years, it would be a massive disappointment if they couldn't turn things around.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
