Broncos defensive lineman Matt Henningsen may be out for the season.
Henningsen suffered an Achilles injury during the team’s joint practice Thursday with the 49ers, and the team fears it will end his season, according to Mike Klis of 9 News.
A final diagnosis won’t be made until Henningsen gets an MRI, but athletic trainers can usually diagnose an Achilles tear with a high degree of accuracy just by feeling the player’s ankle.
The 26-year-old Henningsen was a 2022 sixth-round pick who has played in 34 games for the Broncos.
The Raiders will be in New England to face the Patriots in Week 1, but Tom Brady won’t be at the matchup between two teams he has close ties to on September 7th.
Brady will be in the broadcast booth at Northwest Stadium with Kevin Burkhardt for Fox Sports’ broadcast of the Giants and the Commanders. Sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi will also be at the matchup between NFC East clubs.
The same crew will also call Fox’s marquee matchup in Week 2. They will be in Kansas City for a Super Bowl rematch between the Eagles and the Chiefs.
Fox also announced that Joe Davis, Greg Olsen, and Pam Oliver will be on the call for the 49ers’ visit to Seattle in Week 1.
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, and Megan Olivi will be in Atlanta for the Buccaneers-Falcons game while Kevin Kugler, Moose Johnston, and Allison Williams will call the action for the Browns’ home game against the Bengals. Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth, and Jen Hale will be the network’s team for the Panthers’ visit to the Jaguars. Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, and Kristina Pink will call the Titans’ road game against the Broncos.
Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino remain the Fox rules analysts for the 2025 season.
The last time the Chiefs lost the Super Bowl, they made it back to the AFC Championship. And then, the next year, they won the first of two more Super Bowls.
Now, they’ve lost another Super Bowl. What’s next for the team that has gone to five of the last six Super Bowls?
“There’s stuff we’ve got to get better at,” Mahomes told Jarrett Bell of USA Today. “Especially myself. There’s plays on the football field that I didn’t make last year, that I’ve made in previous years. At the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win, whether that’s passing for a lot of yards, not passing for a lot of yards. But I think if I play better, that’s going to make it better for the team. So, I’ve got to be better at executing whenever the shots are there, making those throws. Because that’s going to alleviate pressure on our defense and make them play more free and make the team play more free.”
So what does the sting of a loss do to Mahomes’s approach to the job?
“It just gives you a little extra in some of the workouts and those film sessions, to try to find the little things to get even better,” Mahomes said. “You try to do that when you have success, but at the same time when you have success you can sometimes be complacent. Obviously, you don’t want to lose the game, but it can give you a little bit more motivation to be even better.”
There’s another potential source of motivation. The Broncos and Chargers are on their heels. Some (including Chris Simms on Tuesday’s PFT Live) have predicted the Chiefs will yield the AFC West title to the Denver Broncos.
It could end up being a crossroads season for the Chiefs and Mahomes, in his ninth NFL campaign and the year he’ll turn 30. His worst finish as a starter is losing in overtime of the AFC Championship. His best is three Super Bowl wins in seven seasons.
The Broncos have been securing their key players to long-term contracts. One such player to get a new deal was receiver Courtland Sutton.
Due to make $14 million in 2025, Sutton recently signed a four-year, $92 million extension. That’s a new-money average of $23 million per year.
Here’s the full breakdown of the contract, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $18.5 million.
2. 2025 base salary: $4 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 option bonus: $12 million, fully guaranteed.
4. 2026 base salary: $4.735 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2026 per-game roster bonus: $765,000 total, fully guaranteed but must be earned.
6. 2027 base salary: $19.235 million, $1 million of which is guaranteed for injury and becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2027 league year.
8. 2027 per-game roster bonus: $765,000 total.
9. 2028 base salary: $20.735 million.
10. 2028 per-game roster bonus: $765,000 total.
11. 2029 base salary: $23.375 million.
12. 2029 per-game roster bonus: $765,000 total.
The deal has $40 million fully guaranteed at signing. The other $1 million in injury guarantees vests in 2027.
It’s clearly a second-tier deal. Good but not among the highest-paid of all receivers. With Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase now north of $40 million, Sutton is at $23 million in new-money APY.
From signing, the five-year deal has an annual average of $21.2 million.
The Broncos went to the playoffs for the first time in a decade last season and head coach Sean Payton thinks they can do even more in 2025.
After an offseason that saw the team add players like linebacker Dre Greenlaw, safety Talanoa Hufanga, tight end Evan Engram, cornerback Jahdae Barron, and running back RJ Harvey, Payton told Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports that “I like this team a lot.” Payton went on to say how much he likes the team and the answer was enough to rank them among the very best he’s ever coached.
“The short-term goal is winning the division,” Payton said. “But this is a team capable of winning the Super Bowl. I’ve coached six teams that I thought could win the Super Bowl. Some went to championship games, some to the playoffs. This is my seventh team that I think has that.”
Payton has one Super Bowl ring, so being capable of winning it all obviously isn’t the same thing as getting it done. Doing that will require the Broncos to execute at a high level, enjoy some good injury luck and survive the inevitable ups and downs of a long season, but Payton’s confidence will likely inspire a few more believers in what’s going on in Denver.
