- Kenneth dials up the KC frequency. Roughly eight months after taking home Super Bowl LX MVP honors with the Seahawks, Kenneth Walker III hit the Kansas City ground running and didn’t look back. Walker was sensational from start to finish, commanding the spotlight in a performance that lends credence to this being very much a new-look and new-approach Chiefs offense. Walker’s first game in a Chiefs uniform ended with him rushing for a career-high 173 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown run to go with a 2-yard touchdown catch on a forward toss from the triumphantly returning Patrick Mahomes. How Walker began the game was probably just as telling. He carried it on the Chiefs’ first four plays and seven total on an opening TD march that ended with Mahomes scrambling in for a 15-yard score. The Chiefs haven’t had a 1,000-yard rusher since Kareem Hunt in 2017, the last season Mahomes wasn’t a starter. While Walker won the Super Bowl’s top individual honor, he did so because his former Seahawks teammate Zach Charbonnet was injured. For the majority of 2025, Walker split carries. Though the Chiefs surprisingly ran roughshod over the Broncos defense with rookie Emmett Johnson and Mahomes also chipping in here and there, this was Walker’s night and a message on the marquee: The Chiefs are going to run the ball and Walker will be a workhorse.
- Davis’ Denver offense stymied. As Patrick Mahomes made his much-ballyhooed return after tearing his ACL and LCL last season, his former Texas Tech teammate Davis Webb was making his debut as the Broncos play-caller and offensive coordinator. Monday went much better for Mahomes. Webb and Broncos QB Bo Nix, in his first game since breaking his ankle in the Divisional Round, never found any consistent success. Kenneth Walker’s 191 total yards for the Chiefs bested the Broncos’ 176. Nix looked sharper earlier passing than Mahomes, but it made no matter as the game wore on with Denver shockingly held to nine first downs and its ground game non-existent. J.K. Dobbins was the leading ground gainer with a meager 36 yards, while Nix’s 19-yard TD toss to Evan Engram to tie the game in the first quarter was really the last splash of any kind had by Webb’s offense. After the Chiefs vaulted ahead, 21-7, on a stellar 60-yard gallop by Walker in the third quarter, Mahomes was picked off by Brandon Jones on the Chiefs’ ensuing drive. Set up at the KC 5-yard line, Nix and the offense went backward and settled for a 31-yard field goal by Wil Lutz — Denver’s last points of the game. With such high expectations and such a disastrous debut for Webb and the offense, one has to wonder how long head coach Sean Payton will wait until snatching the offensive reins back.
- Mahomes returns, Chiefs win. Somehow, some way, Patrick Mahomes’ return nine months to the day of ripping multiple ligaments was overshadowed by the debut of a soft-spoken, loud-running Kenneth Walker. Nonetheless, Mahomes had his moments in a return to action that had more good than bad, but was hardly vintage Pat. The first six points of the game were had by Mahomes when he scrambled up the gut and dove head first for a 15-yard touchdown, carrying his hulking left knee brace along with him. If any of the score’s symbolism was lost, Mahomes made sure to underscore it by flexing his right arm to the camera. He was back, strong as ever. The three-time Super Bowl MVP showed some unease in the pocket, though, often more comfortable — perhaps surprisingly — on the move and was at times woefully inaccurate. He finished 15 of 27 for 184 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He hit Rashee Rice on a screen that the receiver took in for a 13-yard score, and his TD pass to Walker was an underhand toss. There is plenty more for Mahomes to show to prove the Mahomes of old is back. With Walker in place, though, Andy Reid has made it known that the Chiefs are changing gears. This no longer has to be Mahomes carrying the entire offense on his shoulders and surgically repaired knee. He can progress week by week and the Chiefs can still be viable. They were dominant on Monday thanks to Walker and a stellar defensive performance. Most importantly, Mahomes is back and the Chiefs returned to the winner’s circle in his return, stopping a three-game skid against the Broncos and an overall six-game losing streak dating back to last season.
- Broncos D is no show. For as problematic as the Broncos’ offensive showing was, their defensive performance was perhaps more worrisome. Bo Nix and the offense, beyond perhaps one of the better offensive lines in the game, is truly still a work in progress. Vance Joseph’s defense is coming off back-to-back seasons as the No. 3 unit in points allowed. Yet, the Chiefs dominated them in humbling fashion by running them over. Most troubling was that this vaunted group that’s eyeing setting all-time sack records was absolutely horrendous in its tackling — or lack thereof. Eight Broncos missed multiple tackles, per Next Gen Stats. As a whole, Denver missed 28 tackles, giving up 247 yards on those missed tackles, which is the most by any defense since at least 2018, per NGS. Many were of the mind that if Nix wasn’t injured in the playoffs, Denver might well have advanced to the Super Bowl last season. Thusly, many believed the Broncos could be Super Bowl bound this year. Well, Denver got Nix back, but this certainly looked nothing like the defense of the last two seasons.
- Chiefs rookies show promise. As uneven as Patrick Mahomes was passing the ball, when he connected with Travis Kelce for a 59-yarder in the third quarter, it was a snapshot of the glory days of the Chiefs dynasty that really wasn’t that long ago. Kansas City’s win had plenty to do with new faces, though. Most obvious was Kenneth Walker, but undrafted free agent Kahlil Benson, starting at left tackle — where he didn’t play in college and presented the team’s biggest question mark — was stellar. In 32 pass block snaps, he allowed just one QB pressure. Rookie second-rounder R Mason Thomas had a pair of QB pressures and one of the Chiefs’ four sacks. First-round pick Mansoor Delane had an interception before exiting with a shoulder injury, which was easily the largest negative for the Chiefs on the evening. Shifty rookie running back Emmett Johnson put together 68 scrimmage yards, and the refurbishing of the Chiefs after a 6-11 season is off and running with faces old and new making valuable contributions against an AFC heavyweight.
Next Gen Stats Insight for Broncos-Chiefs (via NFL Pro): Bo Nix was pressured on 45.5% of his dropacks, the second-highest pressure rate faced in his career.
NFL Research: Kenneth Walker had a career-high 191 scrimmage yards in his Chiefs debut, the most scrimmage yards by a reigning Super Bowl MVP in Week 1, surpassing the previous record of 180 set by Hall of Famer Jerry Rice in 1989. Walker’s career-best 173 rushing yards in Week 1 are second by a veteran player in their debut with a new team, behind Michael Turner’s 220-yard performance in his 2008 debut with the Falcons.
