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          Denver Broncos schedule 2023: Takeaways, predictions

          With a new coach in town, Denver quarterback Russell Wilson hopes to rebound in his second season for the Broncos. (Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire) Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire
          • Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior WriterMay 11, 2023, 08:19 PM ET
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              Jeff Legwold is a senior writer who covers the Denver Broncos and the NFL at ESPN. Jeff has covered the Broncos for more than 20 years, joining ESPN in 2013. He also assists with NFL draft coverage, including his annual top 100 prospects. Jeff has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999. He has attended every scouting combine since 1987.
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          ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos’ 2023 schedule was released along with the rest of the NFL slate on Thursday, May 11.

          In his first year as the team’s head coach Sean Payton will try to end the Broncos’ current seven-year playoff drought with nine home games, including one against the New York Jets, where former Denver coach Nathaniel Hackett was reunited with Aaron Rodgers as offensive coordinator. Denver's bye week falls during Week 9 of the 2023 season.

          Once one of the surest home-game bets in the league, the Broncos have had a winning record at home just once since the start of the 2017 season -- a 5-3 mark in their 7-9 finish in 2019. The Broncos also haven’t had a winning record against the AFC West since 2015, the year the team won Super Bowl 50.

          The Broncos, after a 5-12 finish with the league’s worst offense last season (16.9 points per game), will also find themselves farther off the primetime radar. With the arrival of quarterback Russell Wilson last season the Broncos had seven national television appearances set on their 2022 schedule when they received it last May – four of those in the season’s first six weeks -- compared to just two this time around.

          Broncos 2023 regular-season schedule

          Week 1: Sept. 10 vs. Las Vegas

          Week 2: Sept. 17 vs. Washington

          Week 3: Sept. 24 at Miami

          Week 4: Oct. 1 at Chicago

          Week 5: Oct. 8 vs. New York Jets

          Week 6: Oct. 12 at Kansas City on "Thursday Night Football"

          Week 7: Oct. 22 vs. Green Bay

          Week 8: Oct. 29 vs. Kansas City

          Week 9: BYE

          Week 10: Nov. 13 at Buffalo on "Monday Night Football"

          Week 11: Nov. 19 vs. Minnesota

          Week 12: Nov. 26 vs. Cleveland

          Week 13: Dec. 3 at Houston

          Week 14: Dec. 10 at Los Angeles Chargers

          Week 15: Dec. 16 or 17 at Detroit

          Week 16: Dec. 24 vs. New England

          Week 17: Dec. 31 vs. Chargers

          Week 18: Jan. 6 or 7 at Las Vegas

          Strength of schedule: .518 (T-12th)

          Over/Under: 8.5

          Biggest takeaway

          If form holds and most of the playoff hopefuls live up to expectations, Payton will not get a comfortable wind-up to the start of whatever becomes of his tenure. Certainly, history is no guarantee of future performance, but the Broncos will have seven games against teams that made the playoff field last season and eight of their games against teams that finished .500 or better.

          Revenge game

          Week 5 against the Jets. The Broncos ownership group, which finalized its $4.65 billion purchase of the team last August, gave Hackett all of 15 games as the team’s head coach. Hackett was fired the day after the Broncos’ meltdown in SoFi Stadium on Christmas when a disinterested-looking team unraveled in a 51-14 loss. Hackett has since been hired as the Jets’ offensive coordinator and now has the quarterback in Rodgers many of the Broncos’ faithful had hoped Hackett could lure to Denver last year.

          Bold prediction

          The Broncos, somehow, some way end their losing streak against the Chiefs. At some point the Chiefs have to get bored, don’t they? Former interim coach Jerry Rosburg almost pulled it off in Week 17 last year with a team that had 22 players on injured reserve. The Broncos haven’t defeated the Chiefs since Sept. 17, 2015, in Arrowhead Stadium when Peyton Manning was at quarterback. Kansas City has won the last 15 games between the two teams.