The Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos face off in Week 8 of the 2023 NFL season on Sunday afternoon from Mile High Stadium. Despite it only being October, there’s expected to be heavy snow in the weather forecast for Sunday afternoon in Denver. Let’s go over the weather forecast and how to approach the game for fantasy football.
Chiefs-Broncos weather forecast: Fantasy football impact
There’s a winter storm warning in effect for Denver with 6-14 inches of snow, per the National Weather Service. There’s snow coming down already and it should impact the game. With that said, we know football players have plenty of experience playing in the snow.
Snow will almost always favor two things: Running backs and defenses. We saw plenty of defense in the first matchup between the Chiefs and Broncos, and due to the weather, could see a similar pattern continue this afternoon. With that said, does it mean we have to sit players like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce?
The answer to that question is no. We’re not going to sit stud players just because of a little snow. Mahomes has experience playing in the snow and has said in the past he enjoys it. We also know that while it’s difficult to run and catch and throw in the snow, it’s also tough tackling and keeping your footing. So that means broken tackles and potentially some big plays on offense.
Both defenses are strong plays in fantasy and DFS. The Broncos held the Chiefs to just 19 points a few weeks ago on TNF. So Denver’s defense could be a sneaky strong DFS option in tournaments. It’s definitely risky though. Looking at RBs, Isiah Pacheco should get plenty of work along with Broncos RB Javonte Williams. Both should be good plays in fantasy football.
As for the receivers, Kelce is fine to roll out like you normally would. Maybe we fade some of the Chiefs’ receivers in DFS and standard given the weather. Kansas City’s wideouts are inexperienced for the most part and may struggle in this weather. Really the only players I’d trust on Denver’s side would be Williams, Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. But proceed with caution starting all of them.
Update — Not to freak anyone out, but Patrick Mahomes was added to the injury report late on Sunday morning with an illness. It would be pretty shocking to see Mahomes be ruled out because of this on the morning of a game. But with all the Bijan Robinson backlash from last week, we’re seeing the Chiefs play it safe and adding Mahomes on the report. Unless we hear otherwise, he should be fine and start.
