Denver Broncos 2026 Strength of Schedule: Tied for 25th-Hardest in the NFL
The Denver Broncos are tied for the 25th-hardest schedule in the NFL for 2026: their 17 opponents average 8.27 projected wins, and 9 of them are projected winning teams, 6 of those projected for 10 wins or more.
Denver Broncos 2026 schedule
| Wk | Opponent | Opp Strength | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiefs | 10+ win | 7 |
| 2 | Jaguars | 6 | |
| 3 | Rams | 10+ win | 7 (+1) |
| 4 | 49ers | 10+ win | 7 |
| 5 | Chargers | Winning | 7 |
| 6 | Seahawks | 10+ win | 4 |
| 7 | Cardinals | 10 (+3) | |
| 8 | Chiefs | 10+ win | 7 |
| 9 | Panthers | 7 | |
| 10 | Bye week | ||
| 11 | Raiders | 14 (+7) | |
| 12 | Steelers | 5 | |
| 13 | Dolphins | 9 (+2) | |
| 14 | Jets | 7 | |
| 15 | Raiders | 7 | |
| 16 | Bills | 10+ win | 5 |
| 17 | Patriots | Winning | 9 (+2) |
| 18 | Chargers | Winning | 7 |
Toughest stretch
Weeks 3-5: Rams, at 49ers, at Chargers. Three straight projected winning teams, two of them projected for 10 wins or more.
Softest stretch
Weeks 13-15: Dolphins, at Jets, at Raiders. None of the three is a projected winning team.
Rest: where the Broncos sit
Across the 2026 season the Broncos are up 3 days of rest on their opponents across the seventeen games. 2 games come at a rest deficit of three days or more, and 2 come with a three-day edge the other way. Rest is zero-sum across the league — every day one team is rested is a day its opponent was not — so these net out to nothing across all 32 teams.
How this is measured
Opponent strength here is the betting market's 2026 win total, not last season's record — a forward projection that already prices in the draft, free agency and coaching changes, and that carries none of the luck baked into a won-lost record.
Read the spread before the rank. Across the whole league, hardest schedule to easiest covers about 1.5 win-total points spread over seventeen games — real, but small. Every win total in the market ends in a half-win and every schedule is seventeen games, so two schedules one place apart in the table differ by about 0.06 of a projected win, which is why 24 of the 32 teams share a rank with somebody else. Strength of schedule is a tiebreaker between two teams you already rate evenly. It is not a reason to move one of them.
Broncos schedule questions
Do the Broncos have a hard schedule in 2026?
By market win totals, no. The Broncos are tied for the 25th-hardest schedule in the league — their 17 opponents average 8.27 projected wins, against a league average of 8.50 — and 9 of those opponents are projected winning teams.
When is the Broncos bye week in 2026?
The Broncos are on bye in week 10 of the 2026 regular season.
What is the toughest stretch of the Broncos 2026 schedule?
Weeks 3 through 5, when the Broncos play Rams, at 49ers, at Chargers — all three projected winning teams.
Where the Broncos rank
Denver Broncos are tied for the 25th-hardest schedule of the 32. The Cardinals have the hardest at 9.32, the Lions the easiest at 7.79. All 32 schedules ranked.
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