In the signature win of the Sean Payton Era in Denver, the Broncos toppled the Chiefs 22-19 on Sunday to position themselves in the driver’s seat in the AFC West. Here’s The Denver Post’s stock report from an exhilarating day at Empower Field.
Stock up
Jahdae Barron, TE stopper: Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has found something at the perfect time with Barron, the Broncos’ first-round pick who’s been stuck behind high-performing veterans at defensive back. Through much of the first half, Joseph stuck Barron on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in man situations. No easy matchup. That’s a 23-year-old rookie trying to check a Hall of Famer with 13 years and 50 pounds on him.
Barron handled his assignment with aplomb in perhaps the best game of his pro career. Kelce finished with nine catches for 91 yards and a touchdown, most of which came in the second half; he had just two catches for 14 yards in three targets and six routes against Barron. On second-and-15 toward the end of the first half, Barron broke across the middle and blanketed Kelce on an incompletion — and then got up and talked trash to a seven-time All-Pro.
Vance Joseph might have a TE stopper in Jahdae Barron.
Matched up direct on Travis Kelce 6 times, by my count. Allowed 2 catches on 3 tgts for 14 yards.
Watch Barron jam Kelce, play this beautifully, and then get in the face of an all-time-great TE. pic.twitter.com/mMrRR7kDvf
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) November 17, 2025
Once Pat Surtain’s back, Barron’s ability to grapple with tight ends gives Joseph another wrinkle against teams with a wealth of receiving options.
Jaleel McLaughlin, goal-line back: One didn’t need much emotional intelligence to sense how much Sunday’s touchdown — the Broncos’ only one of the game — meant to McLaughlin. The third-year running back has been wedged deep in the Broncos’ running back room for most of the season, but he finally got his shot with J.K. Dobbins on injured reserve. And he played a rather unique role: a 5-foot-7 goal-line hammer.
Sean Payton handed the ball to McLaughlin two straight times after first-and-goal at the Kansas City 8-yard line, and McLaughlin responded with two 4-yard totes. On the second, virtually every big body on the Broncos’ offensive front shoved him across the plane. The Broncos rushed for just 59 yards on 21 carries in Dobbins’ absence Sunday, but McLaughlin’s contribution put them over the top.
Team film study: Joseph’s defense is humming right now because of individual players’ abilities to win one-on-one assignments. It’s also humming because they seem to win chess matches every week. They outmaneuvered the Chiefs on Sunday, even without green-dot communicator Alex Singleton. Justin Strnad filled in brilliantly in his first start at mike linebacker.
On second-and-10 on Kansas City’s final offensive drive, Strnad, Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga all seemed to recognize the Chiefs’ play before it happened. Greenlaw and Strnad switched assignments. Hufanga pointed at Rashee Rice to indicate he was going in motion. Hufanga bumped onto Rice, Greenlaw and Strnad completely blew up a three-tight-end formation over the middle, and Patrick Mahomes had nowhere to go on an incompletion.
2nd+10 play on Chiefs’ final drive. #Broncos‘ Dre Greenlaw, Justin Strnad, Talanoa Hufanga see this play before it happens.
Greenlaw points like he knows Rashee Rice is coming in motion to left. Watch Talanoa Hufanga gesture he’s checking Rice. Broncos just swallow this up. pic.twitter.com/XdAedNtQ3M
— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) November 17, 2025
Sean Payton chutzpah: After the Broncos’ win, Payton took to the podium for some well-earned gloating.
“I hear some of the narratives,” Payton said, “and I just want to like, cry.”
What narratives, exactly? That the Broncos needed to show more after an 8-2 start? That they weren’t favored against Kansas City? Either way, Payton clearly managed to unify an entire locker room around an underdog mentality despite entering Sunday tied for the best record in the NFL. Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto asked Twitter: “What they gon say now?” Cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian asked Twitter: “Y’all were saying what now?”
The best NFL teams often take on the personality of their head coach. It’s happening in Denver. In a phrase: defiant confidence.
Stock down
RJ Harvey, bouncing: The rookie running back has been explosive on many of his touches this season. There’s plenty of faith in him to figure it out, too. But Harvey finished with just 30 yards on 11 carries Sunday — a slightly concerning start to life down the stretch without J.K. Dobbins.
Sunday was indicative of a growing trend across Harvey’s rookie year. He’s often played like a home-run hitter, and yet actually runs better between the tackles. Harvey’s averaging 5.1 yards a carry on inside runs this season, and 3.2 on outside runs, according to Next Gen Stats. He picked up 7 yards on five carries outside the tackles against the Chiefs. That’ll be a point of emphasis after the bye.
Payton trick plays: They haven’t worked for two straight weeks, and often in hilarious fashion. Somehow, wideout Courtland Sutton was dinged for a sack against the Raiders in Week 10 after a pitch back to him from Nix was swallowed up. And on a first down on the Broncos’ first drive Sunday, Payton called for a reverse to RJ Harvey, who then cocked to fire back to Nix as a receiver.
Harvey was actually recruited out of high school as a quarterback. But the Chiefs read it all the way, and Nix had to swat the pass down.
“I tried to show off my DB skills,” Nix joked postgame.
Never an awesome sign.
The officiating: By rough estimate, Sunday’s officiating crew, led by head referee Adrian Hill, huddled to discuss flags at least five times. The fans at Empower Field got so antsy they began booing. And neither side ended up happy. Kansas City’s tackles weren’t dinged for numerous clear holds on Denver’s edge rushers, and Broncos wideout Troy Franklin clearly jumped early on a late game-sealing catch.
Officials have a brutal job. This just wasn’t a great showing.
Dragonslayer69: There is actually a horde of X (aka Twitter) profiles named some variation of Dragonslayer69, so Adam Trautman hit it right on the head when he concocted a fictional handle for the social media platform. None of them happened to be talking about Bo Nix, of course. But Trautman delivered what’ll easily stand as the quote of the year in writing off the mob of Nix critics as an amorphous fellow going by “Dragonslayer69” who sits in his mother’s basement and drinks Slurpees.
Trautman either killed that gamertag for life or just spawned a whole line of “Dragonslayer69” T-shirts. So maybe stock is up here, actually.
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