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.