The Denver Broncos enter the 2026 NFL season defending a 14-3 record as the former AFC top seed, while managing a practice injury for wide receiver Marvin Mims and the retirement of their iconic live mascot, Thunder, after more than three decades.
Football season arrives in Denver with high expectations and notable transitions across both the active roster and game-day traditions. Following a dominant 14-3 campaign under head coach Sean Payton that secured the AFC’s top seed, the Broncos are preparing for their upcoming regular-season opener on Monday, September 14, against the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Only three years removed from Nathaniel Hackett coaching Russell Wilson in the Sunset Boulevard phase of Wilson’s career, your Denver Broncos were the top seed in the AFC. Now, the advent of the 17-game schedule has, in a short amount of time, produced many strange outlier teams that ended their respective seasons with 13-14 wins despite failing the eye test. Eleven of Denver’s victories last season were by one score. For their third and final loss of the regular season, the Broncos had their 11-game winning streak busted in Jacksonville, where Jags QB Trevor Lawrence scored four TDs.
Despite those hurdles, the Broncos wrapped up the top seed and playoff bye, advancing to the divisional round where they beat Buffalo at home. Right after that game ended, Broncos head coach Sean Payton announced that his team would be losing the AFC title game to New England because his starting QB had secretly fractured his ankle on the game-winning drive, leaving future underqualified offensive coordinator Jarrett Stidham to take the reins. I’m not worried about Stiddy,
Payton told the press in the lead-up to that matchup. The game eventually featured a fateful fourth-and-1 at the Patriots’ 14-yard line where Payton elected to go for it in a jumbo formation with no one split out wide, despite the Broncos having the No. 1 rated O-line by PFF in the entire NFL.
As the team narrows its focus toward the Week 1 matchup, health questions surround wide receiver Marvin Mims. Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post reported that Mims (foot) suffered a bruised foot in the team’s preseason finale against the Vikings on Friday, and he was not spotted at the Broncos’ practice Monday. Mims does not appear to be ready to return to practice quite yet, though the wide receiver will have a few more chances to return to practice this week ahead of the regular-season opener against the Chiefs on Monday, Sept. 14.
Denver Broncos Thunder mascot and team retiring
Away from the gridiron, the organization is bidding farewell to a gameday fixture of more than 30 years. The Denver Broncos announced on Monday, August 10 that their live mascot, Thunder, and his faithful rider Ann Judge are retiring after the 2025 season was their last ride.
Sharon Magness Blake, Thunder’s owner, started the program in 1993, and Judge joined in 1998. The elegant white horse and his fashionable rider, who always wore a blue and orange Western-themed outfit and carried a team flag, delighted fans through three Super Bowl-winning seasons. They rode snow or shine leading the team out of the tunnel and then from end zone to end zone every time the Broncos scored at Mile High Stadium, which got a new home in 2001 and is now known as Empower Field at Mile High. The horse that appeared in the 2025 season was Thunder IV.
“On behalf of our organization and all of Broncos Country, we thank Sharon Magness Blake and (her husband) Ernie Blake, Ann Judge and the entire Thunder Spirit team for their extraordinary contributions to the Denver Broncos,” Broncos owner Carrie Walton Penner said in a statement. “For more than three decades, Thunder created lasting memories for fans as an iconic part of our gameday experience and community outreach.”
Carrie Walton Penner, Denver Broncos owner
Beyond gameday entertainment, Thunder appeared at events for youth and older adults throughout the city of Denver, which Judge said gave the job an extra sense of purpose. I've always felt like what we did in the community had the most personal impact,
she said in the team release. “The things that we did with schools and libraries and elderly care centers and Boys & Girls Clubs. Those experiences, those are the ones that were not the most visible, but that’s where we really changed the course of people’s lives. And we did it with a horse.”
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Speaking with 9News, Magness Blake gave insight into why it’s time to hang up the reins, citing advice that a Super Bowl MVP and NFL Hall of Famer gave her.
“(Thunder IV) is 19 and we don’t have a backup horse anymore,’ she said. ‘And so it’s his age and we want to be careful with him. We don’t want him to overextend himself. And then we’re all getting older. It’s hard to give it up. But you know John Elway told me one time, he said, ‘Sharon, always leave when you’re at the top.’”
Sharon Magness Blake, Thunder’s owner
Other NFL teams that have a live mascot in the past and the present are the Cleveland Browns’ Bullmastiff dog and the birds of the Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks. Elsewhere in Colorado, the CU Buffaloes have a live bison mascot, Ralphie, who runs around Folsom Field before each football game.
The Broncos said they will continue the Thunder program in the 2026 season and beyond with a new team and horse.
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