Broncos misanthropes and Chargers missing links believe the Oranger’s early-season schedule will be the most grueling and grinding since Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees with 5,000 Carthaginians and 37 elephants in the Second Punic War.

Eva Peron and Carrie Walton Penner won’t fret.

The Broncos open the season Monday night, Sept. 14, at Kansas City, where the Chiefs still temporarily are located in Missouri. Then they are at home against ’25 playoff teams and ’26 contenders the Jaguars on Sunday and the Rams the next Sunday night. They play successive road games vs. the 49ers and the Chargers before a Monday night super special in what should have been the repeat of the Super Bowl.

What a grand marquee de sod!

The season’s seventh game in Phoenix for the Broncos seems like a Nebraska outing with Scottsdale State Community College.

The genius guess among thespians and thieves is that the Broncos will lose four, possibly five and be done before Black Friday’s solo NFL offering and most certainly prior to the Christmas Day Broncos-Bills offering at Mile High.

The 14-3 shocking record by the Broncos last season seemed an albatross, even to dust old townsfolk in Colorado and on the two coasts of the country, and the franchise will fall, fail and flunk this season.

The Chargers’ jovial, juvenile marketing department already is trolling the Broncos and especially quarterback Bo Nix and his ankle injury, as if Justin Herbert didn’t have his own injury late last season and didn’t even play in the final game in Denver. Herbert, of course, never has won anything of meaning, and the Chargers have never won a Super Bowl and spend every year as an unwanted, worthless brother-in-law at SoFi Stadium. So, go ahead with the Chargers and pile on. The last time the Chargers finished first in the AFC West was 2009.

At least, the Las Vegas Raiders don’t brag about anything except the fountains at the Bellagio and a hockey team that will take the Colorado Avalanche to five games before fading in the conference finals.

Perhaps John Tortorella, the Knights’ golden mouth for the past few weeks, will shut up after consecutive defeats in Denver. John and I both were employed by the same national sports network, which doesn’t say much for him.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, the Raiders have hired their 20th head coach since Mike Shanahan was named the young head coach in 1988 (and didn’t last two years). Now the coach is the son of a quarterback Shanahan coached in Denver. This year the Broncos will play Klint Kubiak twice and Kyle Shanahan once.

And the Raiders will have No. 1 overall pick – Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza. He will be 23 on Oct. 1. Bo Nix is 26, Herbert 28 and Patrick Mahomes, 31 soon.

The NFL’s first Monday Night game was intended for a Mahomes-Nix QB heartthrob. Who knows, though? Mahomes supposedly is ahead of schedule in his recovery from torn ACL and LCL ligaments. We assume Nix, who had ankle surgery and another ankle “clean-up,” also will be ready for the first game.

Despite the alarm and alert in the media for the Broncos’ first six games, or even eight, counting the second with the Chiefs, the overall schedule ranks 15th in strength. The Chiefs games are not being played in the horrific weather of December, and the Raiders and Chargers road games are indoors. Getting the Jags and the Rams at home will be positive in September. The Broncos can lose to the 49ers and the Seahawks without disaster.

They should have no serious problems against the Cardinals and the Panthers, who are mouth breathers. The Broncos should go into the bye with a 6-3 or 7-2 record. Then the Raiders at home. The Steelers will be a new weaker team, and the Dolphins and the Jets are the same old weak teams. That’s three victories. The Christmas Classic with the Bills and the Broncos will be brightly lit. Then the game in New England at the beginning of January could be a real issue.

But the Broncos conclude with the chump-change Chargers in Denver.

Looks all day and season long to me that the Broncos win 13 of 17 games and repeat as division winners.

Don’t cry for the Broncos, Arvada, Aurora, Alamosa or Aspen. The Broncos are back.