Patrick Surtain II has a message for anyone who thinks the Denver Broncos’ 2025 breakthrough was a one-year thing.
Keep doubting.
Hours before Denver opens its season against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football,” Surtain published a first-person piece for The Players’ Tribune laying out his expectations for a Broncos team that won the AFC West and reached the conference championship game last season.
“We’re not a finished product yet,” Surtain wrote. “This team, we’re really just getting started in terms of how good we can be.”
The Broncos will not have to wait long to test that conviction.
Their first opponent is the team they knocked off the AFC West throne. Mahomes returns for his first game since suffering a season-ending knee injury in December, while Kansas City gets its first opportunity to answer a 6-11 season that ended a nine-year run as division champion. Denver swept the Chiefs in 2025 on the way to a 14-3 record.
For a team still talking about doubters, the setting is almost too convenient.
Patrick Surtain Wants Broncos to Start Faster
The sharpest part of Surtain’s message was not his warning to outsiders.
It was his critique of Denver.
The Broncos won plenty last season, but rarely made it comfortable. They tied an NFL record with 11 one-score regular-season victories and set a league record with 12 comeback wins.
Surtain would prefer fewer emergency landings.
“I wouldn’t be mad if we actually won some games by a few touchdowns this season,” he wrote. “And if every game didn’t have to be a heart attack situation at the end.”
His prescription was straightforward.
“This year, we basically just need to keep our foot on the gas,” Surtain wrote, adding that the Broncos have talked about starting faster and imposing their physicality from the opening whistle.
That makes Monday more than the usual Week 1 measuring stick.
The Broncos are opening a season in Kansas City for the first time in franchise history, and Sean Payton has also emphasized starting fast heading into 2026.
Then there is Mahomes.
Kansas City listed its quarterback as a full participant on the final injury report, with no game designation, putting him in position to return against the team that displaced the Chiefs atop the division.
Denver is no longer trying to catch Kansas City. Now it has to prove it can stay in front.
Surtain Makes Strong Prediction for Bo Nix
Mahomes is not the only quarterback making a return Monday night.
Bo Nix is set for his first regular-season action since suffering an ankle injury during Denver’s playoff run, giving the opener another layer Surtain addressed directly.
Surtain believes Nix is ready for considerably more.
“Bo’s about to truly take off this season, and we’re all ready to follow his lead,” Surtain wrote.
He pointed beyond Nix’s arm and accuracy, praising his leadership, positivity and work habits.
That matters after the way Denver’s season ended.
The Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills 33-30 in overtime in the divisional round before losing 10-7 to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. They had reached the conference title game for the first time since their Super Bowl 50 season, only to stop one victory short of another Super Bowl appearance.
Surtain opened his Players’ Tribune essay by recalling the silence in Denver’s locker room after that loss.
The disappointment apparently did not lower his expectations.
Broncos Get Immediate Chance to Back Up Surtain’s Warning
There is an interesting contradiction surrounding Denver entering 2026.
The Broncos are defending division champions. They finished eight games ahead of Kansas City last season. They swept the Chiefs and earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Yet Surtain still sees a team being treated as if it has something to prove.
“It’s funny, in some ways, I almost feel like this team … we’re kind of in the same situation we were in last year, where people are still thinking we somehow lucked into things, or that we weren’t as good as our record said we were,” he wrote.
Then came the warning.
“Everyone on the outside … keep on doubting us all you want,” Surtain wrote. “But let me just tell you straight up: You’re making a big mistake if you’re trying to write off Denver.”
Monday offers a cleaner answer than anything Surtain could write.
Mahomes is back. Nix is back. Kansas City wants its division back.
And the Broncos get their first opportunity to show whether last season was the destination — or, as Surtain insists, merely the start.
Patrick Surtain II Warns Broncos Doubters Before Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs Clash